We're All Breakable Sometimes
by Buffybot
Summary: Sequel to GHOSTS OF THE PAST. Anakin Solo is having emotional problems and runs away, but Tahiri goes after him. Meanwhile, Jaina is still dealing with Zekk's leaving.
1. Starting Over

CHAPTER ONE

**Disclaimer:**I don't own Star Wars or any of these characters (though like many people I wish I did).They are all the property of George Lucas, or Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta.

**Author's Note:**This story takes place approximately three months after my other story "Ghosts of the Past", and ignores everything that has happened in the New Jedi Order except for the events in the novel "Vector Prime".I'm writing a whole series of alternate universe stories that take place after Vector Prime.This is the third story in the series.The first two are "Second Chances" and "Ghosts of the Past".Oh, and if I made a few mistakes, it's because I didn't read the Junior Jedi Knight novels.So, if there are any mistakes, just let me know and I'll fix them.

And now, on with the story…

CHAPTER ONE:STARTING OVER

Alone in the dense, humid jungle, with nothing but the wind whipping by her face and the strange yet familiar sounds of the creatures who lived there, Jaina Solo finally understood why Tenal Ka enjoyed running so much.It gave Jaina a sense of freedom she had not known she had been looking for, until one day – against her better judgment – she had offered to join Tenal Ka on one of her early morning runs.She knew her body would regret it later, but she needed to try something new.

A month later she was still doing it, but like Tenal Ka, preferred to go out on her own.

Yes, she had nearly collapsed the first few times, even though her friend had slowed down her pace considerably, but within a few weeks, Jaina's body had adapted to the demands of the newfound hobby of hers.

She never thought she would actually consider running to be fun, but there was something exhilarating about it that she could not describe.Each day she pushed herself farther, stretching her body to the limit – and then some.She was no Tenal Ka but could keep up a pretty respectable pace, which was a lot more than she could have said about herself a few weeks ago. 

She knew her twin brother worried that she was spending so much time alone, but Jaina found it better than hanging around the academy where everyone kept giving her those pitying looks and treating her like she was going to fall apart at any moment.She neither wanted nor needed their pity.

Zekk was gone and she was moving on with her life.It was as simple as that.

If he came back now, she would take apart his precious _Lightning Rod_ piece by piece and then put the parts in a scrap yard where they belonged.

He had been gone for over two month's now on his quest to fix what he felt he was becoming all over again – a victim of the dark side.

Her and Jacen's seventeenth birthday had come and gone without so much as a holo message from Zekk.Not that she had really been expecting one after the way things had ended between them.

Deciding she had run far enough for the morning, she changed direction and headed back to the praxeum, recalling the recorded holo message Zekk had left for her on her nightstand before leaving.A miniature holo of Zekk had appeared when she had turned the holo recording device on.His expression had been full of a dozen different emotions playing across his features at once.She had only listened to it the one time but remembered exactly what he had said in his final attempt to make things right between them: 

_"Once you hear this, I'll be long gone," the holo of Zekk began."I don't really know where I'm going but I do know that I can't stay with you and everyone else on Yavin Four anymore," the holo Zekk hesitated, "even after what you said.You have to believe me when I tell you that I have never meant to hurt you, even though it usually ends up like that anyways.You mean more to me then I'll ever be able to tell you.I know I have a funny way of showing it, but my leaving again is for the best.I know for a fact that if I had stayed I would have ended up hurting you more than if I had left."_

_The image of Zekk phased in and out for a second before coming back into focus."As you've probably already noticed," he went on, "I left my lightsaber behind.I don't have the right to use it until I can be sure that I'll use it for the right reasons.I left it with you because I can trust you to take care of it…and as a sign that I'll someday be back for it._

_"Until I can prove to myself that I can control my dark feelings and desires, I'll be out of contact.I won't even tell Peckum where I'm going."The image swallowed."I don't know what else to say except I'm sorry for everything and that I love you.I always will, no matter how things turn out between us.Good bye, Jaina."The miniature holo projector turned itself off, the holo of Zekk disappearing inside it._

__After she had finished listening to the holo recording, Jaina had shoved it away along with his lightsaber in one of her drawers.If he ever did come back, she would show him his error of leaving behind a deadly weapon with her.

Initially, she had blamed herself for his leaving because she had been unable to help him deal with the mistakes from his past.She soon got over that.Zekk had made the decision to leave on his own.It was not her fault he would not give her the chance to try to help him.Zekk had always been like that, though.He would never let anyone help him except for himself.Even after years of being friends with her and Jacen, he was still a loner at heart, and that would never change.

Zekk had hurt her so many times she thought she would have learned her lesson the first _or_ even the second time.But no, she continued to let herself fall for him even after everything he had put her through.No more.He could fly through a supernova and she wouldn't shed a tear.She had already spent too much time crying over him.__

__Rounding the last hurtle of massassi trees, Jaina became aware of a presence that had become exceedingly familiar to her in recent weeks.

"Solo!"Shouted a well-cultured voice just as Jaina exited the jungle.

If Zekk was the last person in the galaxy she wanted to see right now, then Ganner Rhysode was second on that list.

She suppressed a grimace as the older Jedi made his way over to her.She had barely held an entire conversation before a month ago, and now he made it seem like they were old friends.Ganner was most definitely _not_ her friend.He may have cornered her into a few conversations, and at the very least she would consider him a well-known acquaintance.But friends?No.He may be the only person at the praxeum that did not walk on eggshells around her, but that was all the praise she would give him.She hated to admit it but he was also good-looking, and even more so since he had finally decided to shave off that annoying goatee of his, but that did not change the way she felt about him at all.

Ganner had something of a reputation at the academy.He had dated most of the female population there, and went through girlfriends faster than a hungry rancor could finish its meal.Jaina was one of the few females he had never been romantically involved with.She suspected that his recent hovering around her though, was due to the fact that with Zekk now out of the picture, he thought he had a chance with her.He had not made any advances towards her.Yet.And she hoped it would stay that way.She had no interest of getting involved with anymore, and she had a feeling that Ganner Rhysode was not use to being turned down.

"Another good run, Solo?"He said to her, that charming smile of his present on his face.

It annoyed her to no end that he continued to refer to her by her last name, and she knew that's why he did it.Well, two could play at that game.

"Too bad you were too busy dazzling the female population of the academy to join me, Rhysode," 

"I could make time," he said in a seductive voice, stepping closer to her.He laughed when he saw her move away from him."It was a joke," he told her.

Irritated, Jaina said, "isn't there someone else you could be bothering?"

"No, I've already annoyed the hell out of everyone else at the praxeum, so I decided to come bother you," when she frowned, he added, "That was another joke,"

"You should talk to Jacen.I'm sure if you two combined your jokes you could manage to alienate yourselves from everyone at the academy, permanently," she remarked dryly.

"You just don't have a sense of humour,"

Sweating profusely from the humidity and her run, Jaina was in no mood to continue exchanging retorts with Ganner.All she desperately wanted to do was take a shower.

Running out of patience, she said, "why did you really come out here, Ganner?"

His face turned serious for the first time since joining her. "I thought you might want some company on your morning run.But," he added, looking her sweaty outer appearance over, "I can see I got up too late."

Jaina tried to sense any ulterior motives in his words, but to her utter astonishment, he was being completely honest with her.

"I prefer to go early because there's no on around then," she explained.

"I see,"

"If you think you can keep up with me, you're welcome to join me sometime."What was she doing?Had she really just invited someone she could hardly stand on a run with her?_I must be losing it, _she thought to herself.

She half-expected him to make some smart-ass comment, but he surprised her once again.

"Maybe I'll take you up on that," he said to her.

Before Jaina could say another thing, she noticed her centaur friend, Lusa, galloping towards them at a hurried pace.Her long, cinnamon coloured mane flying wildly in the wind behind her.

"Jaina, Master Skywalker is looking for you," her friend said upon reaching her side.

Jaina sensed concern coming from her friend."Why?What's wrong?"

"Your mother is on the comm in the communications room.She sounds really upset,"

Her mind whirling through a dozen different scenarios of what may have happened, she raced with Lusa back to the academy.She noticed Ganner following at a close distance behind them.

"Did my Uncle tell you what's wrong?"

"He didn't say much," Lusa answered, "just that it has something to do with Anakin,"


	2. Family Trouble

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER TWO:FAMILY TROUBLE 

Jaina ran into Jacen halfway to the communications room, and together they rushed to the terminal that presently housed the image of an extremely worried looking Leia Organa Solo.Her eyes were red from crying and Jaina feared the worst.

Neither Jaina nor her twin had felt anything through the force, but that did not mean that something serious hadn't happened to Anakin.Their younger brother was light years away on Courscant spending a few extra days with their parents, so the distance factor may have hindered their abilities to pick up on his presence.

"Mom, what happened to Anakin?"Jaina asked immediately.

"He took off from Courscant in one of the supply ships heading for Yavin Four," Leia told them.

His face a mask of complete seriousness, Jacen said, "why did Anakin take off?"

"He and your father were working on the _Falcon_ when they got into an argument," she began slowly."One thing led to another and then your father lost his temper and said some things he shouldn't have, no matter how mad he was at Anakin."

Jacen and Jaina exchanged worried looks.

Fearing she already knew the answer to her question, Jaina asked it anyways."What did dad say to him?"

Their mother blinked back tears."He yelled at him for leaving Chewie behind,"

_Oh no,_ Jaina thought, closing her eyes briefly.The incident at Sernpidal was still an extremely sensitive subject in her family, especially for Anakin, even now, months after Chewbacca's death.Things had finally gotten back to normal in her family, with Han no longer blaming his youngest son for Chewie's death, but now, Jaina sensed that the healed father and son relationship was falling apart again.

"I already talked to Luke," said Leia, "Anakin should be there in a few hours,"

Jacen placed a comforting hand on his sister's shoulder."Don't worry, mom, we'll take care of him," he assured her.

Leia gave them a small grateful smile.

Jaina said, "where's dad now?"

Their mother's smile vanished."I don't know, but I'm sure he's somewhere beating himself up for what he said."

Jaina took that as code for their father was looking for the most lowlife infested cantina he could find so he could get himself drunk.

"He'll try to hide how upset he really is," Leia told them, "you know how Anakin is,"

They did.He would keep everything bottled up inside him, but no one, Jedi or not, could keep that up forever.Anakin may think that he could, but if he continued to push his feelings farther and farther away in an attempt to hide them, Jaina knew that they would one day creep up on him and slap him in the face.There was only so much your body could hold in.After that, it was up to the person to decide whether to deal with it or let themself drown in the emotions that they had spent so long refusing they even existed.

"I'm sure Anakin and Dad just need some time to clear their heads," said Jacen.

"I hope so.I don't know if I –" Leia cut herself off in mid-sentence."Just give me a call when he gets there and let me know he's all right.Unless he wants to talk to me himself, which I doubt."

"He's not mad at you.He just needs some space, that's all," Jaina said.

Leia didn't look convinced but she didn't argue with her daughter.With a final inquiry into how Jaina and Jacen were doing, and then telling them she missed them, Leia signed off.

Despite their reassuring words to their mother, Jaina did not believe for a second that 'some space' would help fix things between father and son.

The supply shuttle, _Eclipse_, cleared through the atmosphere of Yavin Four, carrying with it its monthly load of supplies to the Jedi Academy.With little difficulty the small shuttle made its way towards the great temple and touched down on the designated landing pad outside it.

After thanking the _Eclipse's_ captain for letting him hitch a ride, Anakin Solo grabbed the bag that he had hastily packed and departed the ship.

He expected his brother and sister, and even his Uncle Luke to be there waiting for him, but they were no where to be seen.He was grateful for that because he really did not want to speak to anyone right now.They must have known he was coming, though.He was certain his mother would have called and told them what had happened.

Deciding he had a better chance of reaching his room unseen if he did not go in through the main entrance, Anakin continued walking until he was almost halfway around the ancient massassi temple.It was there he found one of the many hidden entrances to the temple that he had discovered years ago he had been a student at the Jedi Academy.

He pushed open the door, the hinges of it groaning slightly, and slipped inside.He knew his way around the place better then most people, so he was able to take a set of back stairs – that the majority of students didn't even know existed – up to the floor his room was on.

Numerous glow panels that had been installed into the ceiling lit up the corridor that led to his quarters.The hallway itself was deserted, with the majority of students off attending their afternoon classes.

When he reached his room, he nearly let out a sigh of relief at having been able to slip inside undetected, when he felt her all too familiar presence approaching from behind him.

"Hey, you never told me you were coming back earlier," Tahiri lightly scolded him.

"It was kind've a last minute thing," he explained, coming around to face his best friend.

"What's wrong?"She asked, picking up on his uneasiness.

Of all the beings in the temple, why did he have to run into the one person who it would be impossible to hide anything from?

"It's nothing," he assured her.

Tahiri didn't look like she believed him."Nothing?You should know by now you can't hide anything from me, Anakin Solo,"

"Fine.It's nothing important.Does that satisfy you?"

"No, it doesn't."

"Well, it's going to have to because I don't feel much like talking right now," he moved to open his door but Tahiri stepped in front of it.

"Tahiri, would you please move?I have stuff to do," Anakin said, annoyed that she wouldn't go away.

"I'm not going anywhere until you tell me what's bothering you," she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Maybe you should just mind your own business," he snapped at her.

Hurt, she said, "fine.I can take a hint.When you do feel like talking about it, you may find you don't have a best friend to talk about it to."She pushed past him and stormed off down the hall.

Anakin watched her go, sighing to himself.He seemed to be doing a good job of screwing up the relationships in his life these days.If things kept up like this, he could manage to alienate himself from his brother and sister and everyone else on the planet before day's end.

He walked into his room, throwing his duffle bag onto his bed.He would go apologize to Tahiri later, that is, if she was still interested in being his friend.

Anakin flopped down onto his bed.He really didn't need the added weight of Tahiri on his mind.He had enough problems to worry about.For starters, how he was going to keep his family from falling apart because of him.

So what do you think so far?

I'll try to post chapter's three and four in the next few days.


	3. Good Friends Are Hard To Find

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER THREE:GOOD FRIENDS ARE HARD TO FIND 

Jacen Solo pushed around the food on the plate in front of him, trying to think of a way to say what was on his mind without offending the beautiful Dathomirian warrior in front of him.

Gathering his courage, he said, "are you sure you're up to it?I'm not saying you couldn't handle it," he added quickly, "but I could easily get someone else to go with me."

Tenal Ka looked up from her lunch and regarded Jacen curiously."Why would I not feel up to going to Rygelia with you?"

"Well, I just thought – I mean you've been tired lately –"

"That was two weeks ago," she corrected him.

"Right.But it's probably going to be a pointless mission anyways,"

"Every mission that Master Skywalker sends us on has a purpose, and this one is no different."She gave him a stern look."You would not be trying to talk me out of going with you, would you?"

"Me?"Jacen said in an innocent voice, "never,"

"Yes, you are.Why else would you be acting so nervous?"

Jacen should have known he would never get away with it."I just thought –"

"That you would be protecting me by making me stay here?"She finished for him.

Uh oh.He should have just kept his mouth shut."Not exactly,"

"You are a terrible liar, Jacen," she said, an amused look crossing her features.

"Maybe I am.I just want to make sure you feel up to heading to a planet that could be full of Yuuzhan Vong."He did not bother adding that he was trying to get her to stay behind because he was worried about her disease flaring up while they were there.It was not as if she had had any serious episodes since she had told him she was diagnosed with Sinapsisden, a rare and incurable Dathomirian disease.She just had a few tired spells here and there.The doctors had said it was very possible she could lead a normal life without the disease taking full effect until later on down the road.

He had promised her that he would not become obsessed with her health, and so far he had done a pretty good job of not being the 'worrywart boyfriend'.That did not stop him from worrying about her altogether though - he couldn't help it.He was afraid that even if she were not in good health she would try and hide it from him. 

"I appreciate your concern, but I am fine.I cannot sit around here anymore doing nothing when there is a galactic war going on out there,"

Jacen knew exactly how she felt because his own restlessness had started to kick in days ago.They had been stuck planet side for weeks now.While most of the older Jedi Knights went out on their own missions to help aid the New Republic, Jacen, along with some of the younger knights, had been given the task of staying on Yavin Four to protect the Academy and its students incase the Yuuzhan Vong found it.But there was only so much sitting around and twiddling his thumbs he could take.He knew protecting the academy was extremely important, and maybe even vital to the survival of the New Republic, but he could not help but feel useless by not being in the thick of the action like he usually was.

"You're right.It will feel good to be back out there doing something, instead of being cooped up here any longer,"

"Why?Where are we going?"Jaina said, sliding her own lunch tray onto the table and taking a seat across from her brother.

Jacen swallowed._Oh boy_."Uh, Tenal Ka and I are going to Rygelia to investigate the rumors that the Vong are using it as a place to keep their slaves until they give them a specific job on a specific planet.I'm sure it's just a rumor.I don't think Rygelia would hide slaves for an alien race that is trying to take over our galaxy."

Trying, but failing to keep her voice from rising, Jaina said, "and it's just the two of you going?"

Jacen and Tenal Ka exchanged quick glances."Well, yeah,"

"When do you leave?"

Jacen looked down at his plate of food."Tomorrow morning," he mumbled.

"Tomorrow morning?"Jaina exploded."When exactly were you planning to tell me this?"

"We were going to find you later this morning," said Tenal Ka.

Jaina shook her head in disbelief."I guess Uncle Luke doesn't think I can handle a mission like this,"

"That is not true, friend Jaina."

"Sure it is," she glared across the table at her brother, "isn't it Jacen?"

"He's just concerned about you, that's all,"

"You mean he thinks I'm depressed," she said simply.

Jacen ran a hand through his thick hair.He knew where this conversation was going, and it was bound to start another fight between them.

When Jacen didn't answer her, she took that as confirmation of her statement."You think I'm depressed too," 

"I never said that,"

"You didn't have to,"

"Well, maybe if you didn't spend so much time by yourself, people wouldn't think that."Big mistake.He should not have said that, because it just served to anger Jaina even more.

"I don't care what everyone else thinks, you should know that.But I guess you, my all-knowing brother, think you know me better then I know myself,"

Jacen turned to Tenal Ka for support, but all she did was give him a look that said she was staying out of this.This was between him and Jaina.

Turning back to his sister, he said, "this tough act of yours may fool everyone else, but not me.Underneath that façade of yours, your hurt and angry, and I hate that Zekk did this to you –"

Jaina rolled her eyes."I really don't want to hear this," she said, getting up from her seat and picking up her tray of food.

"Where are you going?"

"You said I'm depressed, right?So I might as well act the part," and without another word to either one of them, she walked away and found an empty table on the other side of the room.

Jacen blew out a frustrated breath of air.He had not wanted that to happen.Why did she have to fight him every time he tried to help her?"

"Zekk's leaving has been hard on her," spoke up Tenal Ka.

"I know that," said Jacen, "but why can't she admit that?"

"She will when she is ready," Tenal Ka assured him, "but forcing her to talk about it will only make matters worse between the two of you,"

He pushed his plate away from him, having lost all appetite."I can't just sit here and do nothing.She's my sister, and I hate seeing her in this much pain,"

"You are not doing nothing," she said, reaching across the table for his hand. "You are her brother and she knows that you are here for her if she needs you.You cannot do more than that unless Jaina wishes you to."

Tenal Ka was absolutely right, and that's what made him feel even more useless. 

Moonlight guiding her, Tahiri made her way to the lake where many of the Jedi trainees enjoyed going swimming.There was no out there now of course, since it was so late.That is, no one except the person who had been avoiding her and everyone else all day. 

Anakin was sitting on a rock overlooking the water, a solemn expression on his face.He had been out there sitting alone for hours now.Tahiri had tried to respect his privacy by giving him some space, but there was only so long she could remain quiet, especially now that she knew what was going on with him.

Without slowing down, she walked over to him and sat down on the boulder beside him.He didn't look over at her or acknowledge her presence, but simply kept his gaze fixated on the water.It was awhile before either one spoke, but as was typical of their friendship it was Tahiri who broke the silence first.

"Jaina told me what happened," she said quietly, "I'm sorry,"

"Don't be," Anakin told her as he picked up a stone and threw it into the lake, "you didn't kill your father's best friend,"

"Hey," she said, her voice dripping with conviction, that Anakin had no choice but to look at her, "neither did you,"

He frowned at her."You're just like everyone else, you can't tell me the truth."

"If anyone is honest with you, it's me.You should know that by now,"

"I guess," he said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"I thought you were over blaming yourself for Chewie's death.What's making you plot that old course again?"

Anakin stared at her incredulously."I thought you said Jaina told you what happened,"

Tahiri nodded."She did, but your dad didn't mean what he said.People say a lot of stuff they don't mean when they're upset,"

"Not my dad,"

"Do you want to tell me yourself what happened?"She said gently.

Maybe she would go away if he told her, and that's what made up his mind for him."I was working on my dad's ship and I decided to ignore what my dad told me and did the repairs my way.It would have worked too, except the _Falcon_ isn't like any ordinary ship.She's been cobbled together with so many spare parts and has been rewired about a million times, that it couldn't handle my modifications," he did not go into any of the technical details because he knew she would not have understand a word of it."My dad started screaming that I should have listened to him, and I made the mistake of telling him my way was better.He said the _Falcon _was his ship and that I do what he tells me to do.Chewbacca had never disregarded what he told him to do.He said that none of this would have happened if he had been there," Anakin swallowed hard, "and then he said Chewbacca wasn't there because I had left him behind." 

"He didn't mean it," she said, attempting to comfort him, "he's still grieving over losing him and you were there so he took his grief out on you,"

"I wish I could believe that,"

"Believe it," she said, touching his arm and sending waves of strength and sympathy his way.

"I'm sorry about earlier," he apologized in a low voice.

"It's okay.I just wish you had told me what was going on then.

"I didn't want to talk about it then,"

The truth was he had not even really wanted to talk about now, but Tahiri had a way of making him talk.No one else would have managed to drag that many words out of him at once.When he looked up, he noticed she was staring at him.

"What?"

"Are you going to sit here all night feeling sorry for yourself, or are you going to come back with me?I bet you haven't eaten anything all day, have you?"

"No, I haven't," actually, he had not had anything to eat since that morning, and the mention of food sent his stomach growling, despite his sour mood.

"Well, I'm sure we could scrounge something up.It'll be like when we were younger and we use to raid the kitchen after all the other trainees had gone to bed," she said, her green eyes twinkling at the memory.

"You mean when _you_ use to raid the kitchen," he softly corrected her, "I just came along to make sure we didn't get caught,"

"Oh come on," she said, shoving him playfully, "are you going to tell me that you never enjoyed eating all those desserts that were supposed to be for the teachers?"

He failed to hold back a smile."No,"

She grinned."That's what I thought.Now lets get going," she grabbed his arm and hauled him to his feet."All this talk about food is making me hungry,"

He would not say it out loud but she had managed to make him feel marginally better.Though he suspected she already knew this.Tahiri rarely set her mind to something and did not accomplish it.That was on of the things he admired about her – in a strictly platonic way of course.

He had to admit she had done a lot of growing up from the chatterbox nine-year-old kid he use to know.Yes, she still refused to wear shoes unless it was absolutely necessary, and she still talked enough for the both of them, so it was more the physical changes he had noticed.Things like how she had grown her wavy, golden hair to just below her shoulders and was now up to just below his chin in height.There was another change too, that had all of the sudden snuck up on him one day.When he looked at her, he still saw the same barefoot and wide eyed, dirty girl who had wandered into the grand audience chamber years ago and soon after became his best friend – but there was more.He had always thought she was not bad to look at, but in recent months it had become more then that.He could not help himself from noticing what a beautiful woman she was turning into.It was kind of weird for him, she was his best friend after all, but it was as if he were looking at her through a different set of eyes.He hadn't said anything to her, for fear of making things awkward, and partially because he was unsure of what her reaction would be.It was best to keep things the way there and not complicate their relationship.

As he let Tahiri lead him back to the academy, chattering excitedly about one thing or another, he wondered briefly to himself what he had done to deserve a friend like her.


	4. Breakdown

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FOUR:BREAKDOWN

After seeing Tenal Ka and Jacen off, her Uncle Luke had asked Jaina to drop by his office.She readied herself for the lecture that would start somewhere along the lines of, "Jaina, the reason you're not going to Rygelia is not because I didn't think you couldn't handle it.I just think you need a break from everything."

She kicked absently at a loose pebble as she rounded a corner in the temple.She had been out of action for weeks now, and the only thing worse then being stuck on Yavin Four was being stuck there why everyone else got to leave.The only bright spot was she would get a break from watching Jacen and Tenal Ka together.The two of them were inseparable – even more so then before they had started dating.She had enough of them flaunting their perfect relationship in her face.Although she hated to admit it, even to herself, she felt that way because she was jealous.Then the jealousy soon became erased by shame.Tenal Ka was sick with a disease there was no cure for and here she was thinking she didn't know how much more of the two of them she could stomach.If anyone deserved to be happy it was her brother and Tenal Ka.She had never seen two people more in love.She knew she had been pretty cold to them lately, especially to Jacen, but when they returned maybe she could change all that.

She had noticed Anakin had been absent from the good-bye ceremony in the hanger bay, and made a mental note to go check on him after her uncle had finished whatever it was he wanted to talk to her about.

Anakin worried her.He seemed to be doing his best to avoid everyone.Jaina hoped that by telling Tahiri what had happened that she might be able to get through to Anakin.Sometimes it seemed like she was the only person he would listen to.

Jaina's heart went out to her younger brother.She had no idea what it was like to feel so responsible and so guilty about something.Their father was not helping the situation either.In fact, he was making it worse.Anakin already felt bad enough as it was without their father adding to the big enough burden his son was carrying on his shoulders.

Pushing her thoughts aside when she reached her uncle's office, she rapped her knuckles on the door.Luke's response was immediate.

"Come in, Jaina,"

She opened the door and was surprised to find Lusa sitting across from her Uncle's desk.

Luke nodded to his niece in greeting."I'm glad you're here.There's still one other person we're waiting for but I can fill him in when he gets here.I had a very important reason for asking you both here,"

Jaina pulled up a chair beside Lusa, curious as ever.

"I know you think I left you out of the mission to Rygelia on purpose, Jaina, and you're right,"

_Here it comes_, Jaina thought, _he's going to tell me he didn't pick me because he thinks I'm going through some kind of depression._

"But I did that because I have another mission that I need you for which is just as important,"

Jaina perked up at this news.Finally, she was going to get back into the thick of things.

"It's not what you think," said Luke, picking up on her elation. "There's a good chance you won't have to use your lightsaber at all,"

Jaina's excitement dropped considerably."What kind of mission is this?"

"You'll be going to the Dezzlec system.All six planets are considering membership with the New Republic in hopes that we will be able to help protect their system from a Yuuzhan Vong invasion.

"Right now, if the Yuuzhan Vong continue on their present course they could take the Dezzlec system in less than four months.If the Vong take the system, the New Republic is going to lose one of its major natural resources provider."

Jaina blinked in disbelief at what she was hearing."You're sending us on a diplomatic mission?"

"No, no, it's much more than that.See, the Dezzlec have been great supporters of the Jedi since the days of the Old Republic because they saved their system from being taken over by the Sith more than sixty years ago.

"The reason I asked you here," he continued, regarding Lusa and Jaina in turn, "is because the Dezzlec have requested to have Jedi present during the negotiations.They trust the Jedi to make sure that the New Republic is giving them a fair deal, and I've you chosen you and Lusa to represent the Jedi."

"I thought you said there was three of us going?"Said Lusa.

As if on cue, there was a knock on Master Skywalker's door.

"Come in,"

The door to the room swung open and in stepped Ganner Rhysode.

"Sorry I'm late.What did I miss?"

Luke quickly filled Ganner in on everything he had missed.

"And why exactly have you specifically chosen us for this wonderful mission?"Ganner said, his tone full of sarcasm.

Jaina could see he was as thrilled as she was about the idea of going on some diplomatic mission that could easily be handled by some less experienced Jedi.The three of them should be out there fighting the Yuuzhan Vong, which was where the New Republic really needed them in Jaina's opinion.

Luke looked thoughtful."The Jedi could use more support in the senate, and if Dezzlec does join the New Republic that will happen.

"They haven't seen much of what the new generation of Jedi Knights can do," he said to them, "so this mission will serve the purpose of showing them we are just as capable as the Knights of old."

Ganner let out a snort."So, you want us to put on a show for them, is that it?"

"That's not it at all," Luke said, shaking his head."I chose each one of you for a specific reason."He turned to the centaur girl."Lusa, you have an extensive knowledge of medicine.Cilghal tells me you have become quite the Jedi healer,"

Lusa ruffled her cinnamon mane in embarrassment."There is still much more I have to learn, Master Skywalker,"

Luke nodded solemnly."A Jedi never stops learning.I have full confidence that the Dezzlec people will see you as a more than capable Jedi healer."He turned to Jaina next."It's obvious why I have chosen you, Jaina.You are one of the best Jedi pilots out there,"

_And my flying skills are going to be put to waste on this mission, _she thought angrily.

"What about Ganner?"He was an accomplished Jedi Knight who was not half bad with a lightsaber, but Jaina did not think he possessed any unique talents.

Luke pondered his next words very carefully before speaking."Ganner is what many would consider to be the ideal Jedi.He's bold, strong, and courageous."

Jaina was unable to resist the urge to roll her eyes.As if Ganner's ego was not enormously huge in the first place, Luke had to go and inflate it some more. 

He could have easily chosen Anakin for the mission instead of Ganner.Anakin was a much more powerful Jedi then him, but in light of recent events she understood her Uncle's reasons for choosing Ganner over her younger brother.

Trying not to let any of the disappointment she was feeling show, Jaina said, "so, when do we leave?"

"Tonight," he said, "since the New Republic officials will be arriving in the Dezzlec System sometime tomorrow afternoon.In the meantime, you should use the computer's library to brush up on your knowledge of where you'll be going.Is there any questions as to your role in the negotiations?"

The three Jedi Knights silently shook their heads.

"I know you think I'm sending you on some boring diplomatic mission," said Luke, sensing their frustration, "but that could not be farther from the truth.You are the extra factor that will help convince the Dezzlec to join the New Republic.And with the increasing number of worlds falling to the Yuuzhan Vong, we need all the help we can get.Besides, " Luke said, giving them an amused smile, "this will give you the opportunity to learn something about diplomacy that may help you to prevent a interplanetary civil war when you're on future missions."

He made it sound like they would be doing the galaxy a huge favour, but that did not make Jaina like the mission any more.In fact, she liked it even less now, if that were actually possible.Love of politics was something her mother had been unable to pass onto her.She hated diplomacy and all the stuffy bureaucrats that went along with it.The only good thing she was getting out of this mission was it would get her out of this place for a while, even if it was just to baby-sit a bunch of diplomats. 

No matter how hard Anakin tried he could not get the horrible dream out of his head.All night he had been plagued with nightmares of Sernpidal, his father's anger, his own guilty conscience, and memories from his childhood that he did not even want to think about.

He felt like he was losing his mind.There were so many emotions and feelings jumbled up inside of him trying to break free, he thought he was going to explode at any minute if he didn't let them out.They were beyond his control.One minute he was sobbing like a newborn and the next he was ripping the sheets of his bed in fury.

He heard a tentative knock at his door that he had been expecting for some time now.He had locked himself in his room all morning.It was only a matter of time before someone started wondering what was going on.

He silently prayed the person on the other side of the door would go away.He couldn't deal with anyone right now.But the knocking just got louder and more persistent.

Anakin clutched the sides of his head in agony."Go away!"

"Anakin?"Came the muffled voice of Tahiri."What's going on?"She tried his door but it was locked."Open the door and let me in,"

"Please, Tahiri," he begged, "just leave me alone,"

His voice was off.He did not sound like Anakin at all.The flood of emotions she felt coming from him was almost enough to bring her to her knees.She could not stand out there doing nothing when he was clearly going through some kind of crisis.Without a second thought, she used her mind to open his locked door.What she saw when she walked inside was enough to make any words she had planned to say to him catch in her throat.

He was rocking back and forth on his bed, hugging his knees to his to his chest.His skin looked pale, and his ice blue eyes had dark circles underneath.He stopped when he saw her.

He looked at her with empty eyes."I thought I told you to leave me alone,"

"I felt your pain.I couldn't just walk away,"

He got up from his bed and walked towards her."You have no idea what's going on inside of me,"

Tahiri forced herself to stay where she was standing, even though the way he was acting was enough to send a shiver down her spine."Anakin, I understand –" 

That was when he lost it.

"Don't tell me you understand, because you don't!"He screamed.

With his bare hands, he hurled everything off the shelf next to him, sending bits and pieces of machinery flying everywhere.

"You can't understand," he whispered, his voice trembling.

"Then make me understand," she said stepping over the mess on the floor to reach his side.

Anakin shook his head and sank to the floor, holding his face in his hands.

Tahiri knelt down beside him.He was a complete wreck and she wondered how long he had been like this.He looked scared…something she was not use to seeing on him.That frightened her even more then his strange behaviour.

Not knowing what else to do, she put a comforting arm around his shoulders.Anakin recoiled at her touch and slid away from her.

"Anakin, let me help," she pleaded with him.

She waited for another outburst but he didn't say anything.He just sat there, staring blankly at the wall, as if he had completely forgotten she was there.

This was not good at all.He looked like he was just shutting down.At that moment, Tahiri knew there was only one way she still might be able to reach him.

_Anakin, let me help you._

She came up against a concrete barrier.

"Stay out of my head!"He snarled.

Before Tahiri could comprehend what was happening, her body was being lifted into the air and hurtled across the room faster than the speed of light.A sharp pain smacked her in the side of the head, bringing her body's flight to an abrupt end…and then nothing. 

Keep the reviews coming!!


	5. Feeling Guilty

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER FIVE:FEELING GUILTY

Anakin stormed into the med-center, cradling an unconscious Tahiri in his arms.He frantically shouted for someone – anyone – to help him.

An MD series medical droid shuffled into view to investigate what all the commotion was.

"She needs help," Anakin told the droid unnecessarily.

"Please place her over here, sir," said the droid, indicating to a medical examination table to Anakin's left."Are you injured as well?"It asked once Anakin had sit Tahiri down.

Anakin looked down at the red stains on his hands and shirt."No, this is her blood," he said in a hoarse whisper. 

The medical droid wasted no time as it carefully examined Tahiri's injuries – its servomotors whining slightly with each move it made."Minor head trauma," its mechanical voice whirred, "significant blood loss from deep scalp wound."Ignoring Anakin completely, it ambled over to a small steel cabinet and removed a skin graft bandage and some antiseptic gel.

Anakin hovered impatiently over its metallic shoulder, watching it clean Tahiri's head wound and then place the graft bandage over it. 

"Is she going to be all right?"He asked anxiously.

"There was no permanent damage to her," the droid said facing him.

"But you said she lost a lot of blood,"

"Yes, but not a large enough amount that would require her to be put in bacta,"

"So, she's going to be okay?"

If the droid had been programmed to sigh it would have."I believe I have already told you that,"

That was a relief to Anakin, but that did not make him feel any better about what had happened – or any less responsible.

"Sir, can you tell me what happened?"Said the droid.

Anakin opened his mouth to speak but no sound came out.He could not bring himself to form his tongue around the words.All he could do was stare at Tahiri's still form.He squeezed his eyes shut.What had he done?

"Sir, are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Anakin managed to get out.

The medical droid regarded him curiously, but did not push the matter.

"I am going to have to ask you to leave," it said.

Anakin snapped out of his daze."Why?I need to stay here with her," he protested.

"I am going to get her cleaned up and into a med-gown.I need to make sure there are no non-visible injuries, and then you may come back," without waiting for Anakin's response, the MD series medical droid ushered him out of the room.

Alone in the hallway, Anakin felt his mind going numb.He desperately needed to sit down.

"Anakin!"Luke Skywalker shouted, rushing towards his nephew.He had felt the powerful surge in the force that had come from Anakin and it had led him here."Anakin, what happened?"Luke said, deeply concerned.

Anakin did not appear to have heard him.He looked to be in shock.Luke gently shook him by the shoulders.

"Tell me what happened,"

"It was me," Anakin replied, choking over the words.

"What was you?"

"It was me," he repeated, his ice blue eyes full of remorse, "I did it to her,"

When Tahiri came to, she found herself in unfamiliar surroundings, but soon recognized she was in the room that served as the praxeum's medical facility.Why was she here?She tried to remember but it sent a throbbing pain through her head._Her head_.That triggered her memory.She had been in Anakin's room, trying to reach out to him with her mind, when he had used the force to throw her across the room and something hard had knocked her out cold.If she had the strength,she would have shuddered at the memory.

She turned her head and saw him, hunched over in a chair by her bed.He looked awful.

"What happened?"She asked him in a quiet voice.

Anakin looked at the floor, ashamed."When I threw you, you hit your head on the corner of my shelf.The medical droid said you're going to be okay,"

"Are you _okay_ now?"

He fidgeted in his seat."Yeah,"

It hurt too much to sense if he was lying.

"I'm sorry," he said, looking at her for the first time.

"What's happening to you?"

"I had a nightmare, that's all,"

"No, it's more then that.I can tell,"

"Look, you should get some rest," he said getting up, "we can talk later,"

She tried to protest but she could not summon the energy to do so, and without another word passing between them, Anakin left the room.

This time when she woke up, she was not nearly as disoriented as before and her head did not feel like it was spinning every time she moved it.

Tahiri was hoping to find Anakin there because they had a lot they needed to talk about.Starting with telling him she didn't hate him like she should have told him when she had first woke up.But Anakin was not there.In his place was the Jedi Master Luke Skywalker.

"How do you feel?"

"Better,"

He gave her a relieved smile."That's good.Anakin was really worried about you."

"Where is he?"When she saw the Jedi Master shift in his seat, a tingle of uneasiness washed over her.

"He left, Tahiri, soon after you woke up."

She did not like what she was hearing."Where did he go?"

"He took off in one of the old ship's lying around in the hanger bay," said Luke, carefully avoiding her question.

"But _where_ did he go?"

Luke looked uncomfortable."He asked me not to tell you,"

"What?"She sat up a little too fast, and felt her head spinning.Luke placed a steadying hand on her shoulder, and when she felt the dizziness subside, she said, "why would he do that?"

"Because he knew you would want to go after him,"

"Of course I'm going after him.How could I not after what happened?It was my fault.I shouldn't have tried to force my way into his head like I did."

"It's not your fault," he assured her, "Anakin has not been acting like himself lately and that's why he did it,"

"What's wrong with him?"She said in a small voice.

"He's having an emotional breakdown," Luke began in a grave voice, "everything that he has kept shut up inside is finally catching up with him.I've warned him many times about the dangers of keeping feelings so strong bottled up inside.And now, the fortress that he built inside of himself to keep everything in is falling apart – and taking him with it," he explained to her.

"Chewbacca's death was the final straw.And even though his death may have brought it on, Anakin's problems go far deeper than that.There are thoughts and feelings locked up in him that go all the way back to his childhood that he can no longer suppress." 

Tahiri tried to prepare herself for the answer to her next question."Is he falling to the dark side?"

Luke could see the fear evident in her eyes when she asked him."Not yet," he answered truthfully, "but given time he could eventually fall if he continues to fight them,"

_Them _meaning years of pent up anger, frustration, guilt, sorrow and other powerful emotions that lead down the path to the dark side.

"I should have seen it coming," Tahiri reprimanded herself, "he's my best friend."

"You couldn't have.I don't even think Anakin knew what was happening until it was too late,"

She came to a decision."I'm going after him,"

Luke frowned."Tahiri –" 

"Master Skywalker, he can't fix this on his own.He needs someone to help him get through this, and don't ask me why but that someone has to be me,"

"What about your head?"

"I told you a feel a lot better," _well, maybe not a lot better._

Luke shot her a disbelieving look."Kam and Tionne would have a fit if they knew I let you leave here while you were still injured,"

"I'm leaving here whether or not I have your permission," she stated evenly."Please," she pleaded with him, "just tell me where Anakin is," when he remained silent, she added, "you know that I'm right,"

Luke hated the idea of her going off after Anakin alone, especially when she was not fully recovered.But something in the force told him that she had to be the one to go or else the path Anakin was heading on would continue to be shrouded in darkness.

"Tatooine," Luke said at last, "that's where you'll find him,"


	6. It's A Lonely Galaxy

CHAPTER SIX

This is just a short chapter to show you all what Zekk's up to.

CHAPTER SIX:IT'S A LONELY GALAXY

The _Lightning Rod _sat birthed in docking bay thirty-three on the planet Ord Mantell, while its captain sat at the helm trying to figure out where to go next.

Zekk ran his hands through his newly cut hair.He had figured it was time for a change, so instead of his usual almost-black hair being tied back into a ponytail, it was now short and spiky.In a strange way, the haircut helped him to forget about his past, at least for a short while.Longhaired Zekk had been the one to turn to the dark side and hurt the people he cared about, not the shorthaired person he was now.

Ord Mantell was just another one of the stops on Zekk's long journey.After more then two months of searching the galaxy, he still had not found what he was looking for.Actually, he was not exactly sure _what_ he was looking for, and was forced to concede he may never find it.

It was not the same kind of dilemma he had been going through when he had given up the dark side after leaving the Shadow Academy.Now, instead of trying to figure out who he was and where he belonged, he was struggling to find a way to accept what he was and to make peace with the darkness within him.The darkness would always be with him; he just had to make sure that he controlled it and not the other way around.

He had returned to some of the places that he had traveled to during his bounty hunting days, including Borgo Prime, Ziost and now Ord Mantell, in hopes of finding something of his old self there.If he did, then perhaps it would help him figure out how he had been able to move forward with his life after having turned away from the dark side.Maybe he would learn why he had been unsuccessful in resisting the temptations of the dark side a second time.There had to be answers somewhere, right?But he knew for sure they would not be found on the small moon of Yavin Four.

His independence had always been something that he had deeply valued.It had felt good to be out on his own again after so long, and not having to be responsible for anyone but himself.That feeling of freedom had soon vanished though, when he realized that he was alone in the galaxy.It was not something he had wanted, but had not had much of a choice in the matter.It was either be alone or stick around and screw up the lives of everyone he cared about – not like he hadn't already done that.

He missed Jaina so much but he could not go back to her or any of his other friends until he was sure he would not slip back to the dark side like he had come so close to doing – and Jaina had nearly paid the price for his mistake.

When he had been forced to watch his old enemy, Xander Karsay, choke Jaina with the force it had awakened something in him that he had kept buried for so long.He had used the powers of the dark side to rescue Jaina, and as if that was not bad enough he had gone after Karsay, fighting him in a blind rage.Once he had given in to his negative feelings he had been unable to control them.They controlled _him_.

Although he had denied it to Jacen when his friend had accused him of caring more about an old vendetta then Jaina, he was now forced to admit that Jacen had been right.He should have left Karsay and gotten Jaina out of the building that was timed to blow up, but he didn't.He had told her to get out of there, knowing full well she would never listen to him, but he had went off to finish Karsay regardless of that.In the end, Karsay had injured Jaina seriously – both mentally and physically, but Zekk had gotten what he had wanted.Karsay was dead.He had killed him out of pure contempt, bringing him dangerously close to giving himself over to the dark side. 

Zekk had made his decision to leave shortly after Jaina had made him tell her everything about his past as a Dark Jedi.He remembered the permanent look of revulsion on her face as he held nothing back.

To actually tell someone what he had done had left him with a feeling of relief he had been unaware he had so desperately wanted.But that did not change the fact that he was still full of the hate and anger that Karsay had helped to bring out in him.He could no longer trust his actions or himself, and he feared that not just Jaina but other people as well would suffer because of his selfishness.He needed to change what he was becoming if he wanted to go on calling himself a Jedi Knight.

Jaina had taken the news of his leaving hard – and had even said she never wanted to see him again.He still had not figured out whether she had meant it or not.She deserved better then him anyways, and he hoped one day she would be able to forgive him, so they could be friends again, like when they had been kids and before everything had gotten so complicated.

He had lost track of how many times he had sat in front of the HoloNet screen, wanting to call her.And every time he thought he had worked up enough courage to do it, he decided not to.

Zekk could not stand not knowing how she was doing, so he had managed to summon the courage to call Master Skywalker.He had not appeared angry when Zekk had called, maybe a little disappointed, but Luke Skywalker knew what it was like to feel the call of the dark side.He had almost slipped on the second Death Star when fighting his father, Darth Vader, and then years later had fallen to the dark side when the cloned Emperor Palpatine appeared.Luke had managed to come back to the light and had not slipped since, unlike Zekk.

When he asked about Jaina Luke had been completely upfront with him.He told him how Jaina was distancing herself from her friends and everyone else, and spending a lot of time alone.Luke explained that though she may be having a hard time now, one day she would understand Zekk's having to leave.He had thanked Master Skywalker and then had asked him not to tell Jaina he had called.There was no need to upset her anymore.

That had been over a month ago, and Zekk had not contacted Yavin Four since.By now, hopefully, Jaina had moved on, like he wanted her to.A day did not go by where he did not feel terrible for leaving her – again, but it was better this way.Someday she would see that.He had already hurt her too many times.She would be better off without him.And he was going to have to learn to accept that, regardless of whether or not he truly believed it.

Don't worry, Zekk's going to have a MUCH BIGGER part in my next story.


	7. Lost in Space

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER SEVEN:LOST IN SPACE

Hyperspace swirled by the passenger shuttle, _First Mate_, while Jaina sat alone in its cockpit in quiet contemplation.Lusa was off reading about the Dezzlec, and Ganner was probably somewhere practicing his lightsaber techniques so he could showoff to the locals.

They had been in hyperspace for hours now, and Jaina had spent every one of them up there in the cockpit.She had tried to brush up on her knowledge of the Dezzlec system, but only got as far as the Dezzlec were a humanoid species when her mind started wandering for the billionth time.

Lusa had come to visit her several times, and they had talked about everything from the Yuuzhan Vong invasion to what Lusa's close friend Raynar Thul was up to these days.Ever since his father's death, Raynar had taken on an enormous load of responsibilities for the Thul Merchant Fleet.Right now, he was somewhere with his mother and the fleet, working hard to keep it safe from the Yuuzhan Vong.Raynar had managed to send Lusa a few holo messages, the latest one saying he was planning on returning to Yavin Four as soon as he could because he knew how bad fully trained Jedi were needed these days.

Jaina could see how much her centaur friend missed the Alderaanian young man, but she would see him again soon.At least Raynar had managed to stay in contact with her the entire time he was gone, which was a lot more then Jaina could say about a certain other person she knew.

Lusa had not hung around too much, though, sensing Jaina wanted some privacy, and thankfully enough Ganner had made himself scarce since they had departed from Yavin Four.

She found it impossible to concentrate on her own mission after her Uncle had told her that Anakin was having some kind of emotional problems, and that he had run off again after accidentally injuring Tahiri.Jaina had wanted to go after him, but Luke had explained to her that Tahiri was already on her way to Tatooine, and that only she alone would be able to help Anakin – if he let her.She had asked if he had a vision about it, but Luke had said no, it was just a feeling he had that the two of them needed to see this through together.And most of the time Luke Skywalker's feelings were right.Still, she wished she knew for sure if Anakin was going to be okay.

Jaina could picture the heartbreaking look on her mother's face when Luke told her that Anakin was gone and would not be back until he had worked out some major personal issues.Leia would blame herself, Jaina was sure of that, and her father?She wondered if he would even care.She knew what a tough time he was going through, but sometimes he just made her so mad.

Suddenly, the deck plates started vibrating beneath her feet, knocking her from her reverie.Before she knew what was going on the entire shuttle was shaking.

"What the h–"

She never got a chance to finish that sentence as the _First Mate _shuddered one last time and dropped out of hyperspace – into the waiting clutches of two Yuuzhan Vong warships, no more than a thousand kilometers away from their present position.

"What's going on?"Ganner said as he and Lusa walked into the cockpit.He answered his own question when he looked out the forward view port.

"They must have set up one of their Interdictor ships along our hyperspace route," Jaina said to them as she furiously worked the controls in front of her, trying to get all the _Mate's_ systems back online.

"We've got company," Lusa announced.

Looking up, Jaina saw more than a dozen coral skippers heading their way.Thinking fast, she said, "Ganner, take the lasers, while I try and get us out of here."

They were sitting in a diplomatic passenger shuttle that the New Republic had given them to use for their mission, which did not have much of a defense system, save for their shields and a small laser canon that would probably not do any real damage to the skips.Jaina was beginning to regret hoping for an exciting trip.Stuck in a bulky shuttle with barely any defenses and a fleet of coralskippers bearing down on them, was not the kind of excitement she had been looking for.

By the time she had managed to get the engines back online, the first of the skips had started firing at them.The ship shook with each shot of plasma that the shields absorbed.

They did not have a whole lot of options.They would most certainly not be able to shoot their way out of there – their shields would fail long before then – but calculating a safe jump to lightspeed might also be just as deadly.Jumping blind though, was an option that Jaina would only consider if they were out of alternatives.No matter how short a jump she planned, there would be no guarantee they would not blast right through an asteroid or into a supernova.First, though, she would have to get them out of the Interdictor's range or they would never be able to jump to lightspeed.

"I hope you have a plan," Ganner said to her between shots.

"Yeah, it's you do your best to keep those skips off of us, while I put the shuttle into some evasive maneuvers until the nav computer has the coordinates for us to jump out of here,"

"Well, it better be soon because I don't know how much longer we can hold up out here,"

She knew what he meant.The _Mate's_ shields were already done to seventy-five percent after absorbing shot after shot that was being fired at them.The ship was just not designed to take this kind of a pounding.Ganner was doing his best to hit the skips, but even his best shots just grazed the yorrik coral or were swallowed up by the dovin basals.

Heart pounding in her chest, Jaina maneuvered them away from the attacking skips – but they kept hot on their tail, firing relentlessly at the shuttle.She tried a few evasive maneuvers but they turned out too sluggish to do any real good.Still keeping her concentration focused on the battle, she watched the counter on the nav computer continue to tick back.They still had a ways to go before they would be safe in hyperspace, now that she had managed to maneuver them out the range of the Interdictor.

Face grim, she continued to focus on dodging the plasma fire from the enemy skips.Shields were down to fifty percent now.They would not be able to take a beating like this for much longer.

Despite the peril of their situation, there was something bothering Jaina about the way the coralskippers were attacking them.Each one of their shots appeared to be carefully aimed at a specific part of the ship.There was no random pattern or wild firing.Right now, though, she was too busy trying to keep them alive long enough to escape to dwell on it too much.

"Anytime now would be good, Solo,"

The words were not even out of his mouth when the counter ticked back to zero and the star lines of space stretched around them, taking them away from the mess of coralskippers and into the welcoming surroundings of hyperspace.

Jaina did not even have a chance to relax because the second after they entered hyperspace, the sound of an extremely loud bang echoed throughout the ship.She knew immediately that it must have come from the engine room._I have a bad feeling about this_, she thought to herself.

Following the bang, the shuttle started vibrating and its passengers were thrown back into their seats.The _Mate _continued shaking uncontrollably until it spit them out into real space – but not at the coordinates Jaina had programmed them to come out at.They were just lucky they had come out into empty space.

"We made it," Lusa said relieved.

"We're not out of the water yet," Jaina told her, "we came out of hyperspace way too early and I think that bang we heard caused it."Just as she said that, her nostrils turned up at the smell of smoke.Lusa and Ganner could smell it to.She needed to get back there and try and fix whatever it was that was smoking, or they would all be flaming debris before long.

"I need to go see if I can repair whatever is damaged back there," she went to get up from her seat but Ganner pushed her back down into it.

"You need to stay here," he told her, "I'll go,"

She shook her head."I'm the only one who can fix it,"

"No," he said, pointing to the controls, "you're the only one who can fly this ship and land without blowing us into a million pieces."Without waiting for her answer, he took off for the engine room.

She wanted to argue with him but was grudgingly forced to agree with Ganner.Yes, she could probably fix or at least temporarily repair some of the damage, but someone needed to fly the ship.With all the damage there was, it would take an especially skilled pilot to land them safely somewhere so they could perform the major repairs – and she was a far better pilot then Lusa and Ganner put together.

She ran a quick diagnostic to see what kind of shape they were in.She frowned at the readings in front of her."Our starboard engine is fried, the maneuvering thrusters are offline, and navigational controls have short circuited," she grimly informed Lusa, and who knew what other problems Ganner might find in the engine room.

Lusa looked out at the planet hanging in space in front of them."Do you know where we are?"

Jaina studied the sensors – at least they still worked – trying to figure out where in space they were.The sensors identified the planet rotating in front of them as Scelvic, which meant they had to be somewhere in the Meridian Sector.And that meant they were only about a hour or so hyperspace jump from the Dezzlec system.

"We're not too far from the Dezzlec system," Jaina informed her friend."That planet out there in front of us is Scelvic,"

"I've never heard of it,"

"That's not too surprising considering it has no real value and no one's lived there in over a decade," Jaina said, remembering her mother telling her about the planet."It's mostly composed of grasslands and forest areas.My mom told me that for years people tried to colonize the planet but the harsh winters eventually turned everyone away from it.With no valuable minerals or raw materials that couldn't be found on other worlds, the New Republic left it alone.It's an ideal hiding spot for smugglers but no one actually lives there anymore."

Lusa threw back her cinnamon mane."And you're planning on taking us down there?"

"Don't worry.Scelvic's in its spring cycle, and it's the only planet close to us.I don't want to hang around in space any longer then necessary because we don't even know what it was that brought us out of hyperspace prematurely in the first place."

Turning back around, Jaina placed her hands on the controls, feeling them vibrate beneath her fingers, and took the _First Mate_ in the direction of Scelvic's atmosphere.She could hear the engines chugging, as she tried to coax as much speed as possible out of the _Mate_ – which was not a whole lot.The remaining engines were already straining themselves to the maximum. 

The moment they entered Scelvic's atmosphere, Jaina had to fight hard to keep the _Mate_ from spinning out of control.

"I hope your crash webbing's secure, Lusa, because this is not going to be one of my better landings,"

"I have complete faith in your abilities, Jaina," Lusa assured her.

_At least one of us does_.

Clouds rolled past them at a blurring speed, as they continued their descent to the land below.With most of the systems offline or malfunctioning, Jaina had a hard time killing their speed, but she was going to have to find a way to do it if she wanted them to land without breaking up into a million different pieces.She managed to cut the thrusters in half, slowing their descent even more.

The green landscape was rushing up to meet them at a dizzying pace.It would be less then thirty seconds before they made first impact with the surface.

Bracing herself for the inevitable collision, Jaina thought, _I hope you're holding onto something Ganner_.

With a bone crunching jolt, the _Mate_ hit the grassy surface and kept on going.It was completely out of her control now, as it skidded and bounced along the ground towards a dangerous outcropping of trees, hitting it head on.

The last thing Jaina remembered before blacking out was the warm taste of blood in her mouth.


	8. Ambush

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER EIGHT:AMBUSH

Flying the _Rock Dragon_ low over the northern hemisphere of Rygelia, Jacen became aware of the uneasy feeling inside of him that had been coming and going ever since they had arrived there.

The native population of Rygelia was a race called the Syynnodes, who inhabited mainly the northern regions of the planet.The average adult Syynnode was around six feet tall, while some could grow to be as tall as eight feet.A thick layer of down covered their entire body, helping to insulate them against the freezing climate.They were a naturally strong species that had evolved over the generations to live in high altitude areas that were difficult for most other species to breathe in.A Syynnode's lungs were large enough that its chest cavity was nearly twice the size of a human beings' .

The main industry on Rygelia was mining.They would dig deep into the mountains and pull out valuable metals that they would sell to the rest of the galaxy.With the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, the New Republic and everyone else needed Rygelia's metals more then ever because of the growing number of mining planets falling victim to the invading alien species.

Rumours had started several months ago that the Vong had entered the Rygelian System, but did not conquer it outright like they almost always did.A team of New Republic Intelligence agents had been monitoring the system, and every three or four weeks a Yuuzhan Vong cruiser would appear in the system.A smaller ship would disembark from it and head for Rygelia, while the cruiser took off.Reports speculated that the Yuuzhan Vong were using the planet to hold their slaves until they were needed.

The Syynnodes denied the allegations, and with the New Republic's forces already spread so thin, they could not spare the manpower to investigate the matter further.The intelligence teams were pulled from the Rygelian System and dispatched to other areas the senate felt were of immediate importance.Only Luke Skywalker seemed to think that the stockpiling of slaves was an important enough issue to send two Jedi to look into the situation.

Jacen had done his homework and read up on the Syynnode species and their planet during the long trip through hyperspace.The Syynnodes were a relatively peaceful race with a democratic government.They had been forced to work as slaves in their own mines during the reign of the Emperor, but a revolt by the workers after reports of Palpatine's death won them back their freedom.Rygelia was one of the first planets to join the New Republic, but over the years they had tried to preserve their independence by keeping mostly to themselves.They sold what they mined to the Republic and in return asked for very little.They could provide for themselves most of what they needed to survive.

Jacen had gone through some of the public records of sales the Syynnodes had made with other planets as well.He found that in the past two months they had more then doubled the asking prices of the metals they were selling.And with few other planets to turn to, people were forced to buy at these outrageous prices.

Syynnodes were not known for being greedy, but with little competition they could basically charge whatever they wanted and get away with it.Unless the New Republic decided to intervene, which it had not.

When Jacen and Tenal Ka had landed in one of the larger cities on Rygelia, their job had been simple: they had said they were government representatives from the planet Ulvis, and were interested in setting up some sort of a trade agreement.They had shown the proper documents and identification to anyone who had asked, and had passed through without suspicion.It was not too hard to convince them since most government officials on Ulvis were humans in their early twenties or late teens.It was the way their society functioned.

They had asked questions about how safe Rygelia was from the Yuuzhan Vong, and if they would be able to defend the planet if and when the Yuuzhan Vong finally arrived in the system.They were straightforward questions that any potential investors would ask.Then they would use their Jedi powers to see if the Syynnodes were holding anything back or lying right to their faces.

After speaking to a number of officials who were involved in the mining operations on Rygelia, they had got nothing more then a bunch of vague answers, or officials who carefully avoided answering their questions altogether.That was enough to start setting off alarms in Jacen's head, but Tenal Ka had played it cool – thanks to years of rigorous diplomatic training imposed on her by her grandmother Ta'a Chume.Tenal Ka had simply requested that she and Jacen be allowed a tour of the mining facilities before they made any final decisions.The Syynnode male, Ta'kk, who was the governor of Rygelia, had finally agreed to it after a subtle suggestion through the force by Tenal Ka.

Ta'kk had given them the coordinates to one of the mining facilities in the northern mountainous regions.He told them they would have to land the ship on a designated landing pad, which was about an hour's walk from the mining operations.No ships were allowed to fly within ten kilometers of a mining area because if the mines were unstable, the rumbling of a ship's engine could unintentionally trigger a collapse of the mine.

Jacen and Tenal Ka were both fine with that.They had come prepared for the cold mountain climate.A thermal suit would keep each of them warm enough to reach the mining area Governor Ta'kk had given them the coordinates to.

If there were any slaves on Rygelia, Jacen was sure that's where they would find them.It was where the Yuuzhan Vong and Syynnodes would be able to keep them secluded and hidden away from any unscheduled visitors to the planet.

"The Syynnodes we talked to were lying," Jacen said to Tenal Ka beside him.

"They were hiding something, that much is certain," she responded.

"It's more then that," Jacen said as he flew them closer to the landing coordinates they had been given."They didn't want to want us to check out their mining operations, and that in itself is suspicious.If they didn't have anything to hide, then why wouldn't they want us to go there?"

"Then perhaps they do have something to hide," she said.

"While we're up there, they'll probably give us a 'selective' tour.So we'll have to do some investigating on our own,"

"This is a fact," Tenal Ka said in agreement."However, if we do discover any slaves we are not to attempt any rescue.It would be a foolish idea since there are only two of us and many more Syynnodes and possibly Yuuzhan Vong as well,"

"Yeah, foolish," Jacen echoed.

She gave him a suspicious look."You are planning something,"

"No, I'm not," he said."Master Skywalker gave us orders not to attempt any rescues by ourselves, and I intend to follow that order,"

"But?"

"But if we come across any that just happen to be standing around–"

"Jacen – " she began in a stern voice.

" – then what's the harm in trying to bring them back with us?" he finished.

"You know very well what would happen if we attempted that," she said to him, "the Syynnodes or anyone else who is there would see us trying to steal their slaves, and that would greatly complicate matters for our escape."

"I know that," he said with a sigh, "but I can't just walk away without doing anything to try and help them.They didn't ask to be slaves or to have their homes conquered and destroyed,"

She could hear the anger edging into his voice, and she wondered if there was something else bothering him.He had not acted like this when Master Skywalker had originally given them this mission. 

"Jacen, we do not even know if they _can_ be saved," she pointed out."If they are like any of the other slaves we have heard about, it is likely the Yuuzhan Vong have implanted them with coral growths to control them.If that is the case, then the growths will have already worked their way through the body's nervous system and we will have no way to remove them."

"Don't worry, I'm not planning on doing anything stupid," he tried to convince her.

"Of course you are not, because you are worried about my condition,"

How had he let that one leak out?Maybe it was just obvious to her.

"Jacen, we have had this conversation before," she reminded him.

"I know, I know," he said, "but I can't help it. What do you want me to do, act like everything's fine?"

"Yes," she told him, "because at the moment I am healthy, and until that changes you have no reason to worry,"

_That's easy for you to say_, he thought, but all he did was shrug his shoulders and concentrated on his piloting.

He had not said anything to her, but ever since she had told him she was sick he had been having awful nightmares about her.One of the worst ones was where he was running through the corridors of the Jedi Academy, with the cure in his hands, but every time he finally reached her room, it was too late.Then he would wake up, drenched in sweat and be unable to fall back asleep for hours or at all.

It bothered him that she did not take her disease more seriously.She acknowledged its presence in her life but that was about all.She still went on her mile long runs every morning on her own, and she seemed to be training ever harder then she usually did to keep herself fit.

Sometimes, he just wanted to lock her in her room to make sure that she was safe.He knew that was selfish of him, and that even by doing that there was no guarantee the disease still would not strike her.

In a way, he was glad that she kept her life normal because it helped him to believe that everything was okay too.

Tenal Ka pointed to a group of ships parked on snow covered landing pads."Is that we are suppose to land?"

"Yeah," Jacen answered, checking the instruments in front of him.

He brought the _Rock Dragon_ down even lower and slowed their descent by half.He did not want to chance hitting any of the other parked ships.It was not like he was the worst pilot but he also lacked the innate talent for flying his sister had.Though, it was hard not to learn anything about flying when your father was Han Solo.

He touched down on one of the empty landing pads, and slowly went through the shutdown cycle.This was not his area of expertise.The majority of the time he was never the one flying.It was almost always his sister, or Anakin, or even Zekk doing the piloting.Tenal Ka was a more then capable pilot, but they had agreed that Jacen would fly to Rygelia and then she would pilot them back to Yavin Four when they were finished there.

When the shutdown cycle was completed, Jacen joined Tenal Ka who was at the back of the ship already in her thermal parka, and was just pulling on her gloves.

Jacen took out a similar looking parka from the storage locker, and put it on over top over top of his semi-casual 'government official clothes'.He placed his lightsaber in one of the outer pockets in the parka.He pulled on his own insulated gloves and boots, and turned to Tenal Ka.

"Ready?"

She nodded her hooded head.

"As my sister would say, what are we waiting for?"

They headed for the _Rock Dragon's_ access hatch and disembarked from the ship.

It was not nearly as cold outside as Jacen had expected it to be, which was probably because of the warm outer clothes he was wearing.Tenal Ka looked perfectly fine as well.After spending time on the permanent arctic side of Ryloth, where the sun never shone, and they had nothing but their normal, everyday clothes on them, the snowy mountain areas of Rygelia were like a warm summer's day.

The moment they had stepped off the ship, he could feel the difference in altitude at being this far above sea level.It took some adjusting to at first, but with the force, Jacen was able to breathe normally again.

The terrain was not too bad.There were a few snowy hills they had to walk over, and some rocky pathways they had to make their way through, but nothing they could not handle.

He was not sure how many miles they had come, but he knew they could not be far off from the mining facility.

He felt Tenal Ka tense beside him.She narrowed her gaze and said, "someone is approaching us,"

Jacen reached out with his mind and discovered several someone's heading towards them, none of them human.

"We just stick to our story and we'll be fine," he whispered to her.

"That is, assuming the beings approaching us are Syynnodes,"

They continued walking, keeping their pace as natural looking as possible.They did not want to let the beings know they had felt them coming.Feet crunching in the snow, they saw five, tall, dirt covered Syynnodes come into view.

"You must be workers from the mining facility, Governor Ta'kk was so generous to let us visit," said Jacen, forcing his voice full of enthusiasm.

"Governor Ta'kk called ahead and told us we should be expecting visitors," the lead male Syynnode said.

_I bet he did_."That's great," Jacen continued, "because I'm sure he told you why we are here.This gives us a chance to talk about your mining operations, if you don't mind leading us the rest of the way,"

"We'd be more then happy to take you there," the Syynnode worker said as he pulled out a nasty looking blaster.

Jacen let out a small smile."Now that you put it that way, how can we refuse?"

Before any of the aliens could respond, a razor-sharp knife sliced through the blaster.The Syynnode cried out and dropped the useless, sparking blaster to the ground.That gave Jacen the time he needed to whip out his lightsaber before the rest of the aliens took out their own weapons.

Tenal Ka took out a second throwing knife and hurled at a Syynnode's leg, dropping him to the ground howling in pain.Then she took out her rancor tooth hilt lightsaber and charged forward.

Jacen followed suit, taking the first Syynnode out with a thrust high to its chest.Another one fired several shots at him in succession, but Jacen easily batted them aside with his emerald saber.

They would be finished with the beings here soon, and then they could be on their way, knowing that when they did reach the mines they would not receive a warm welcome.

He went to strike the next Syynnode in the midsection when something hard slammed into his shoulder, bringing him to his knees.The sound of his left shoulder popping out of place filled his ears.The wind knocked out of him, he dropped his weapon on the ground.Before he could collect himself, his unseen attacker grabbed him by his parka and threw him back into the snow.

Letting his eyes travel up the lean and muscular armored body, Jacen found the tattooed and disfigured face of a Yuuzhan Vong looming over him.One of its ears was burnt off and a jagged, grotesque scar ran from the top of its large forehead down to just above its upper lip.

Without warning, the alien's scaled foot lashed out against Jacen's face before he could react fast enough to get out of the way.


	9. Letting Go Of The Past

Tatooine was just as Tahiri remembered it: two blazing suns burning down on the barren landscape, while a dry breeze picked up

CHAPTER NINE:

Tatooine was just as Tahiri remembered it: two blazing suns burning down on the barren landscape, while a dry breeze picked up the loose sand and would eventually turn it into one of the many sandstorms that occurred on the planet on a daily basis.

She could barely contain the urge she had to take off her boots and run through the sand – and she would have if not for where she was.

Mos Eisley spaceport was not a place where you fooled around in.It was crawling with mercenaries and escape convicts who would not hesitate to shoot you if you looked at them the wrong way.

She did not know her way around Mos Eisley like she knew the dunes and deserts of Tatooine.Nevertheless, she would be able to find who she was looking for.Making herself appear as tall as possible, she headed in the direction her senses were pointing to.

Walking out into the main streets, she saw merchants had set up their shops for the day underneath the overhanging rooftops of buildings, in hopes of getting some relief from the heat.They sold everything from air-cooling systems to twenty-year old falling apart droids.The junk was long past its prime, but Tahiri had learned long ago that selling this 'junk' they had found lying out in the desert or in a scrap heap somewhere, was how many of the people in the city made a living.If you lived on the outskirts, then your choice of occupation was pretty much limited to being a moisture farmer.

She shuffled through the sand on the open streets, making her way towards an indiscreet building with no visible sign on it.There was no need to waste credits on a sign, when the beings that lived here knew what it was.

Walking into the cantina brought Tahiri a sense of uneasiness from being in a strange place.She had spent the first nine years of her life on Tatooine, so she had obviously been too young to wander into a place like this.Her first trip to a cantina had been on the planet Dundas, a few months ago, and this place did not look much different from that one.

An assortment of species were crowded around the bar, drinking their exotic drinks, while others preferred a private booth or one of the sabacc game tables.She wished she could block out the stench of it all but it was way too strong.

The unpleasant smell was forgotten though, when she spotted the human being she had traveled light years to find.

Walking confidently, and keeping an eye open for any trouble, she approached the booth that was currently being occupied by Anakin Solo, and slid in across from him.

"So," she began, "what's a nice guy like you, doing in a place like this?"

Anakin looked up from his untouched drink."You shouldn't have come after me,"

In a huffy voice, she said, "I fly half way around the galaxy to find you and I don't even get a 'hello' or 'nice to see you, Tahiri,' "

"You flew here?"

"Well, no, not exactly," she admitted sheepishly, "Master Skywalker had someone who owed him a favour bring me here,"

"You're in no condition to be traveling anywhere," he looked guiltily at the graft bandage on the side of her head.

"You're one to talk," she retorted.When he did not reply, she said, "is it true what Master Skywalker said?"

"Yeah," he replied in a low voice.

She had not doubted Luke Skywalker's words after seeing Anakin's behaviour in recent days, but she had needed to hear him say it in order to really believe it.Anakin was the strongest person she knew but even he was not indestructible.She knew how he would clam up like a Mon Calamari shellfish.He would hold everything inside where no one could see it, not even her, and up until now, it had worked.

"I want to help," she said in a gentle voice.

Anakin's response was immediate."No.I'm not going to let you get hurt again because of me,"

"I'm not giving you a choice," she said in that stubborn voice of hers that meant there was no room for argument."I'm not going to let you go through this alone.That's how got you into this mess in the first place," she waited for him to argue with her, but instead – he smiled!The first display of emotion he had shown her since she had arrived.

"How do you do that?"

She was confused."Do what?"

"Make me give in so easily,"

She shrugged, slightly embarrassed."It's a gift,"

"Do you want to get out of here?"

"I think that's the brightest idea you've had in days,"

Anakin left a few credits on the table for his untouched drink – he had only ordered it in the first place so the bartender would not kick him out of there – and then he and Tahiri stepped out into Tatooine's searing heat.He went to walk out in the middle of the street when Tahiri stopped him.

"You are a lot of things, Anakin, but a knowledgeable expert of Tatooine is not one of them," she said to him."You don't go walking out in the wide open street where there's no shade in the middle of the afternoon.That's when the sun's are at their hottest.Follow me,"

He watched as she stayed as close to the buildings as possible without touching them, trying to keep herself cloaked in the shadow of the overhanging roofs.After a few moments, he followed suit, glad that at least one of them knew what they were doing.

Tahiri could not believe the rundown building that Anakin had brought her to.He was staying at one of the few motels in Mos Eisley.'The Sandcrawler' was what the crooked sign hanging outside said.The place could have just as easily been a jail by looking at all the thugs and lowlife's hanging around it.The inside was no better.Cracks had spider webbed along each of the walls, garbage lined the floor, and a ripped repulsor couch sat in the middle of the room.A dry, gust of wind blew into the room through the broken windows, creating a mini tornado with all the debris.

Against her better judgment, she followed Anakin as he led her up a set of rickety stairs to his room.

"It's not like the wonderful accommodations we're use to on Yavin Four," Anakin said with dry humour when they reached the door, "but I didn't have a whole lot of choices,"

Her mouth dropped open in a gasp of shock the moment she saw the inside of it.

A rickety looking table with two chairs sat in the far corner by the window – where the blinds where barely hanging onto it by a thread – and the bed, well, maybe at one time it had been that but now it was just a mattress with springs going through it, was pushed up against the wall.The 'fresher – she did not even want to get started on that.The only good thing about the room was it did not smell nearly as bad in there as it did out in the hall. 

"If we ever go on vacation, remind me not to let you pick the accommodations,"

"It's not that bad," he said, walking over to the edge of the 'bed' and sitting down on it.

"I guess not," she conceded, "that is if you don't mind rodent infested places that smell like a Gamorrean."She had meant it as a joke but Anakin was back to his moody self now.She walked over and gingerly sat down on the mattress beside him.

"My Uncle use to tell me that constantly trying to control my feelings would come back to hurt me one day," he said, breaking the silence, "and he was right,"

"He told me that,"

"What else did he tell you?"

She regarded him seriously."He said that if you don't let out all this junk you've crammed up inside you, it will drive you to the dark side,"

"So I have two choices then. I can spill my guts to you or become like my grandfather."

She could hear the bitterness in his voice."No one said you had to tell me anything.If you want to keep everything cooped up inside you, that's fine," she said, folding her arms over her chest.

He sighed."I didn't mean it like that.If there is one person I'm not afraid to tell my secrets to, it's you," he said, blushing slightly."I just don't know where to start,"

"Why don't you start from the beginning?"

"The beginning, huh?Well, then I guess it all starts before I was even born.When my mother was pregnant with me, the cloned Emperor Palpatine touched me through her womb.I wasn't even born yet and I had seen the dark side."

"You joined with your mother and Uncle to fight him," she said, remembering he had told her the story soon after they had become friends.

"Yeah," he said, nodding his head, "and that's why she decided to name me Anakin.Because of how strong I was in the force, and she hoped that by naming me that it would help people to see the good that use to be in Anakin Skywalker before he became Darth Vader."He got up from the mattress and said angrily, "did she ever consider what it would be like for me to grow up with a name like Anakin?To have everyone around you, even your own family, wonder if you were going to follow the same path as your namesake,"

"I don't think she ever thought it would be this hard for you," Tahiri said.

Anakin snorted."Hard?That doesn't even begin to describe it.My name is cursed.I use to have the same nightmare every night for years that I would turn into Darth Vader. Even now I'm not sure I won't turn out to be like my grandfather."

"You're _not_ Anakin Skywalker," she told him, "you're Anakin Solo.Someone who's had ample opportunity to turn to the dark side but has resisted it every time."

"Because I keep all those feelings buried inside of me.But look where that got me.I'm losing my mind and I landed you in the med-center.

"Jaina and Jacen have no idea how lucky they've had it," he remarked bitterly."They've never hard to work hard to keep their anger under control.No one ever worried about them falling to the dark side.No one ever watched them carefully to make sure they were following the right path.I was always jealous of them," he admitted in a quiet voice, "and it just got worse as we got older.The way they could do no wrong.They were Han and Leia's perfect kids.

"Everyone was so proud of my brother and sister's accomplishments by the time they were fourteen, that when I started my own training I felt like I was trapped in their shadow.You had the 'Solo Super Twins', and then there was me," he pointed to himself, "their quiet, introspective, younger brother.Do you think that even if I hadn't wanted to be a Jedi, I would have had a choice?Jaina and Jacen had already done so many great things, people were expecting no less from the youngest child of Rebel heroes Han and Leia Solo.

"Look, I love my brother and sister.I really do, and I've learned to deal with the fact that everyone expects them to be great Jedi Knights and everyone expects me to screw up,"

Tahiri had no idea he felt like this.The envy of his brother and sister.The resentment in his voice when he talked about how easy a childhood Jaina and Jacen had.She had never realized how deeply his name had impacted on him._Some best friend you are, Tahiri_, she chastened herself.

"You're the only one who never judged me or expected me to fail," he said, looking at her. "When I told you who my grandfather was and about my dreams, they didn't matter to you.You told me I had the power to choose whatever destiny I wanted.You're the only real friend I've ever had," he said in a voice so low, she could barely hear him."Sometimes I think it's you who kept me from turning to the dark side,"

"Wow," she breathed, "I don't know what to say."He had never said anything like that to her before.Come to think of it, she could not remember the last time he had given her any sort of a flattering remark.But what he had just said made up for all those years of no compliments.

Anakin merely shrugged."I just thought it was about time I let you know how much you mean to me,"

"Wow," she said for the second time in less than a minute.This was a side of him she had never seen before:completely upfront about his feelings.She wondered if – no, better stop that thought right there.There friendship was too important to her to risk it on some foolish idea.

"You're awfully quiet," said Anakin.

"It's just you've never said anything to me like that before,"

"I didn't know you wanted me to," 

"Oh," was all she could think of to say.

He checked his wrist chrono."It's late.We should probably get some rest,"

He sounded too restless to sleep."We could talk some more," she suggested, "if you want to,"

"Tahiri, you don't have to.I've already laid enough stuff on you –"

"I know I don't have to, but I want to.You need to get everything off your chest, and I know you would do the same for me,"

He did not argue with her because he knew she was right.If their situations were reversed, he would do everything in his power to help her get through it.

No one else would have been able to make him just dump everything he was feeling inside.Pouring out his feelings was not something he did on a daily basis, and it was not something he would feel comfortable doing with anyone else.

Without hesitation this time, he plunged into how bad Chewbacca's death had hit him, and that even though he knew he had done the only thing he could have by leaving him behind, because he had a crammed ship full of people to look after, why did he still feel so responsible?Then there was his dad.He told her how much it hurt to see how he had let him down, and that he was afraid his dad would never trust him again.

Tahiri listened to it all without complaint, even when he would ramble on for minutes at a time.She would offer a few words of support here and there but mostly she remained quiet, knowing he needed this time to vent out all the emotional baggage he had kept bottled up for far too long.


	10. Saying Thank-You

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER TEN:SAYING THANK-YOU 

"Jaina?"

No response.

"Jaina, can you hear me?"

Slowly, Jaina managed to open her eyes, and found Lusa staring down at her, a concerned expression on her face.She tried to get up but her crash webbing held her in place.

"I must have blacked out," Jaina said as she unbuckled her crash restraints.It was a good thing she had worn them or else she would haven been thrown through the glass view port.

"You hit your head," Lusa informed Jaina, indicating to the swelling purple and bluish bruise on the side of her forehead.

Jaina touched it gingerly and winced."How long was I out?"The inside of her mouth tasted like blood.She must have bit down on her tongue when she hit her head.

"I don't know," Lusa said, shrugging her bare shoulders, "I just came to myself, but I don't think it was for too long."

"We better find Ganner and see what shape he's in," Jaina said to her.She got to her feet – her legs a bit wobbly at first – and then left the cockpit with Lusa right behind her.

The rest of the shuttle was relatively dark, not even the auxiliary lights had turned on.The deck plates creaked beneath Jaina's booted feet and Lusa's hoofed feet, as they cautiously made their way to the engine room.The deathly silence made Jaina uneasy.

"Ganner?"She called out.

A tall, shadowed figure, stumbled into their line of sight."Not one of your best landings, Solo," commented Ganner.

"At least we landed in one piece," said Jaina, "more or less," 

The light from the cockpit managed to penetrate its way through even all the way back here, and when Ganner took a step closer to them, Jaina did a quick intake of air.The entire right side of his face was covered in dry blood.

Lusa hurried to his side, unconsciously carrying out her duty as the medical expert of the bunch."What happened?"

"I bumped my head on something when we crashed," he explained, as Lusa examined the wound.

"We better get that cleaned up," she told him, "but I don't think it's too serious.You might get a headache, which could be the result of a concussion.But I can't tell for sure if you have one just by looking at you,"

Ganner held out his arm."Lead the way,"

He followed Lusa as she led him back to the lounge area where the medical supplies were kept.

"Ganner, how bad is the damage back there?" Jaina called after him.

"Once Lusa fixes me up, I'll show you," he said, then added, "and you're not going to like it any more then I did,"

The sound of heavy breathing near his ear woke Anakin from his sleep.It was the first night in days he had slept through without any nightmares.Not that he had gotten much sleep.He and Tahiri had lost track of the time, so it wasn't until the early hours of the morning before they had finally drifted off to sleep on the floor, leaning against the bed.

His left shoulder had lost all feeling in it.Tahiri had fallen asleep on it, her chin digging slightly into it.He unconsciously brushed away a lock of hair that had fallen into her face.She looked so peaceful sleeping soundly and – Anakin could not help but notice – beautiful.

He did not know what he would have done last night if she had not been there.He had felt guilty for spilling his entire guts to her like that, but she had assured him there was nowhere else she would have rather been then right there, helping her best friend.

He needed badly to stretch his legs and get some air that didn't reek of unpleasant odors, but he did not want to wake Tahiri.Ever so carefully, he moved her head off his numb shoulder.He considered placing her on the bed, but decided the floor looked more comfortable.Using the force, he gently laid her sleeping form on the floor, stuffing his rolled up jacket under her head.Then as quietly as he could, he slipped out the door.

It wasn't until late in the morning when he returned.Tahiri was up by then and was anxiously pacing back and forth when he walked in.

Frowning at him, she said, "where have you been?I was worried you had taken off on me again."

"Sorry," he apologized, "but don't worry, I learned my lesson the first time, See," he pointed to a black duffle bag by the bed, "my stuff's still here,"

"Well, wherever you were, I hope you brought back food because I'm starving," she complained.

He had been so preoccupied he had not even thought about it."Actually, I have something better then food,"

She raised her eyebrows at him."What have you been up to all morning?"

"Come with me and I'll show you,"

Where are we going?"Since when did Anakin act all secretive?

He grinned at her."I think you'll figure it out on the way,"

"On the way to where?"She said, trying to fix her bed head hair into something half decent.

"Just trust me, you'll like it.Because where we're going you won't need your boots,"

She gave him a strange look but obediently followed him out the door of the motel room.

"But can we first get something to eat before you take me to wherever it is we're going?"

Jaina felt like dropping to her knees in despair when she saw the state the tiny engine room was in.The smell of burnt machinery tainted the air.Black scorch marks were visible everywhere in the room.Sparks still flew out from the drive that housed the starboard engine and other areas were so blackened Jaina was not even sure what they had once been – but that was not the worst part.The hyperdrive was no more.In its place was a smoking, charred mass of conduits.

Jaina realized then that was what the attacking coralskippers had intended all along.They had been carefully aiming at the _Mate's_ engines and hyperdrive in hopes of disabling them so they could not escape.

"They wanted to capture us alive," Jaina said with a shutter.

Ganner nodded his head in agreement, understanding what she was referring to."That would explain why they didn't just blast us into space dust,"

"There's rumours going around that the Yuuzhan Vong want Jedi captives so they can do experiments on us and find the source of our powers," said Lusa.

"But how would they have known we were Jedi?"

"Come on, Solo," said Ganner, "you don't think the Vong haven't infiltrated New Republic intelligence or have spies working for them that would be more then happy to let them know, three Jedi Knights were heading for the Dezzlec system?I don't think the Vong would pass on something like that since they seem to hate us so much."

"I think the New Republic is in an even bigger mess than it realizes," Lusa commented.

"No bigger a miss then we're in right now," Jaina said."The hyperdrive is beyond repair even if we had the right parts – which we don't.Without hyperdrive, it could take us months to reach the nearest inhabitable system."

Ganner crossed his arms over his broad chest.Lusa had cleaned the blood off his face and he now wore a bacta patch above his right eye."What about the rest of the ship?Could we make this thing fly again?"

Jaina bit her lower lip."Well," she began, assessing the damage, "I should be able to fix the navigational controls, life support, communications, and some of the other systems we'll need to get out of here.I could probably salvage the remaining engines, and if we all work together we could make the shuttle space worthy again in less than a week.I think the only option open to us," she continued, "is once we're out in space we send a distress signal on all channels, and hope someone hears it."

"That could attract the wrong kind of attention," Ganner said, frowning.

"It's the only chance we've got,"

Jaina too, was worried about the Yuuzhan Vong monitoring their communications but it did not look like they had much of a choice.

"Jaina's right," Lusa said, agreeing with her friend."We have to take the risk,"

"I don't like it, but I guess it's the only chance we've got," Ganner conceded.

"Good.Now that that's settled, let's get started on some of these repairs,"

Lusa had already demonstrated why Luke had chosen her for this mission, and now it was Jaina's turn to put her mechanical skills to work and prove why her Uncle had been correct in selecting her for this assignment.

"Tell me again how you acquired this thing?"Tahiri shouted to Anakin so he could hear her over the sound of the wind speeding past them in the landspeeder.

"I told you," Anakin said, as he piloted them out of Mos Eisley, "the guy who lent it to me gave me a good deal on it.I told him I would fix it up for him free of charge when we take it back," 

"It sounds like it's on its last legs,"

"Don't worry, it'll get us to where we're going,"

Once they were out of Mos Eisley, the settlements they passed became fewer and fewer, until there was nothing but golden sand reaching as far as the eye could see.

"You still haven't told me where we're going," right now it looked like they were going nowhere.

"I'd rather just show you,"

"What's with the whole mysterious Jedi act?"She asked him.

"I told you to trust me.I promise you won't be disappointed."

She decided against asking him anything else because he would just keep giving her those annoying vague answers.

They rode on in silence, and after an hour or so, the scenery – if you could call it that – started looking familiar to her.People would call her crazy because they would say everything in the Tatooine desert looked the same.But Tahiri noticed the subtle rise in the rocky cliffs of the canyon they were passing through, the way the air was drier out here, and how heat from the sun felt hotter.She suddenly felt like such a fool for not realizing all along where Anakin had been taking her.He looked over at her and grinned, knowing she had finally figured it out.

The Jundland Wastes had been her home years ago when the Sand People had taken her in after her parents' deaths.As a frightened, orphaned child, she had wandered into the desert and ended up in the Jundland Wastes, where a krayt dragon had found her.She had started screaming, and that had agitated the ferocious lizard even more.Out running it was impossible for a scared, four-year-old girl, but all the commotion had attracted a herd of Tusken Raiders who were lurking nearby.They had wounded the krayt dragon with their gaderffii sticks, and the beast, seeing it was outnumbered, had slinked away.

She had heard stories of how aggressive and dangerous the Sand People were, and their scaring off the huge predatory lizard, had proved it even more.She had feared they had just scared off the krayt dragon so she they could finish her off as their own.She had wanted to run away, but they had surrounded her.They had shouted at her in their strange native language and then walked away.Not wanting to be left alone, Tahiri had followed them.They had ignored her at first, but grudgingly had accepted her presence and she became one of their nomadic tribe; wearing their heavy robes, breath masks and eye goggles, and learning bits and pieces of their language.It took her awhile but she gradually accepted them as her family.It stayed like that for five years, until the Jedi Master, Tionne, had come to Tatooine on a mission and discovered her.Tionne had brought her back to the Jedi Academy when she had discovered Tahiri was force sensitive.Not long after coming to Yavin Four, Tionne and Kam Solusor had decided to adopt her.

Tahiri had never learned why the Tusken Raiders had saved her life and raised her like one of their own, and she suspected she never would.

Anakin brought the landspeeder in close to the canyon wall and shut it down."Is this a good spot?We could go further if you want,"

"No," she said, giving him a warm smile, "this is perfect,"

The first thing she did when they stopped – before she even stepped out of the speeder – was take off her socks and boots.Then she planted her feet in the warm sand for the first time in years.She relished the feel of the sand slipping between her toes, and it served to remind her once again why she hated wearing shoes in the first place.Here, her feet were open and free without the confinement of shoes boxing them in.

Tahiri's first steps in it were tentative, just getting use to the feel again.But before long she was running through it, kicking it up in the air with each step she took.So many memories of her days with the Sand People when they had walked through these very parts came flooding back to her.Had she really been that homesick?

She had forgotten Anakin was there she had been so wrapped up in being back home.She saw how hard he was struggling to keep the amused smirk off his face.She knew what a sight she must have been, laughing and running barefoot through the sand.

"I never realized how much I missed this place," she said, walking back over to him.

"Neither did I.You just talked about non-stop when we were younger," he teased.

She remembered having told him about her adventures with the Sand People and what it was like to grow up with them.He – along with everyone else – had never really been able to understand her attachment to them.The majority of beings saw the Sand People as hostile and extremely territorial creatures.But Anakin must have understood her enough to realize how much she missed Tatooine's harsh deserts if he had brought her all the way out here.

"I can't believe you brought me here," she said, still in shock.

"It was the least I could do, after everything you've done for me,"

"Thank you," she said softly," you have no idea how much this means to me,"

She leaned in close to his face and gently kissed his cheek.Before she knew what was happening, she was moving her lips towards his mouth, and lightly brushed them against his own lips.

They both pulled back at the same instant.Tahiri's stunned look at what she had just done mirrored his own.

Without thinking, he said, "what did you do that for?"The second the words were out of his mouth he regretted saying them.

Tahiri turned away from him."I was just thanking you," she said quickly, trying to cover up her embarrassment at his reaction.

"Um," he stammered, "you're welcome," had she really just kissed him?

By now, Tahiri's face had turned as red as a Mon Calamari.How could she have done that?And to make matters worse he wanted to know why she had done it.She felt so stupid, and here she was stuck out in the middle of a desert with nobody else but him.

Anakin could feel her embarrassment – or maybe it was his own.He could tell she had been deeply hurt by his reaction.He hadn't meant to react that way but she had surprised him, and herself as well it appeared.Had she really just kissed him to thank him, or was it something more?She had never thanked him like that before.

Tahiri moved away from him without a word.She went back to shuffling through the sand, though with considerably less enthusiasm now.He watched as she put a considerable amount of distance between them.

Just when he thought all his problems were fixed, a new one had landed right in his lap.One that he had no idea how he was going solve, but knew he was once again going to need her help to do it.

Keep Reviewing!!!

I'll have chapter 11 posted soon.


	11. Traitors

The Yuuzhan Vong warrior walking behind Tenal Ka shoved her roughly for no other reason then because it could

CHAPTER ELEVEN:TRAITORS

The Yuuzhan Vong warrior walking behind Tenal Ka shoved her roughly for no other reason then because it could.She stumbled briefly, but recovered before the scarred alien could get any real satisfaction out of it.

A rubber-like substance that was alive bounded her wrists tightly together.When she tried to move her hands, the substance constricted tighter, until it felt like it was cutting off the circulation there.

She and Jacen had been stripped of their parkas and gloves, but had been allowed to keep their boots.Their sabers were gone and the Yuuzhan Vong had thoroughly checked them through for other hidden weapons.

She was thankful that for this mission she had been forced to forgo her usual lizard-hide armor outfit and instead wear long pants and a shirt.She was freezing enough as it was, and she could already feel frostbite setting in on her hands and ears.Jacen looked to be in a lot worse off condition.His nose was swelling up – it was most certainly broken after the warrior had kicked him in the face, and his shoulder stuck out at an awkward angle.She saw him grimace every time he was poked in the back with the Vong's amphistaff. 

She and Jacen had been led through the last couple of miles of the wilderness area, and were just now entering the mining region.

The air was murky here and had a metallic tang to it. The ground itself was a mix of asphalt, dirt and snow.There were no trees there.They had long ago been cleared away for the countless storage buildings and wooden shacks that filled the region.Syynnode miners shuffled past them, dragging empty crates towards an open mine shaft.Tenal Ka's breath caught in her throat when she saw the beings going in and out of the mine.

Humans, Bothans, Ithorians, and a number of other alien species that she could not identify were being led in and out of the mine by groups of towering Yuuzhan Vong.They had to be freezing with nothing more then a thin worker jumpsuit to cover their bodies.Some of them did not even have shoes on.But they all had attached to their skin the coral growths the Yuuzhan Vong used to control their slaves.

She felt Jacen's spike in emotion beside her, and knew he had seen the growths on the slaves as well.

The Syynnodes in front of her started chattering in their own tongue, but she did not need a translator to get the gist of what they were saying.Governor Ta'kk was approaching them from one of the buildings, a satisfied smile on his fur-covered face.

The Syynnodes stopped walking, and the Yuuzhan Vong behind she and Jacen jabbed them in the back with their amphistaffs to make sure they did the same.

"You said you wanted to see our mining operations, and here you are," the governor said smugly.

"You make me sick," Jacen spat, which earned him a cuff on the side of the head from his Vong captor, but he did not stop there."Not only are you hiding Vong slaves, but you're using them to work your own mines,"

"And you Jedi come here, lie to our faces and use your mind tricks so you can nose around something that is none of your business."

"You cannot compare what we did to the crimes you are committing here," Tenal Ka said.

Jacen said, "how did you know we were Jedi?"

"We didn't," the governor said simply, "but when you insisted on going to see our mines, we knew we couldn't take the chance that you would see something you shouldn't.I sent out a squad of fighters to strike you down and make it look like you ship had crashed into the mountains.I was over anxious, though, and called Ulvis to tell them the tragic news before it actually happened.But they had no idea what I was talking about.They had sent no delegates to conduct a trade agreement with Rygelia.

"I decided instead to let you land and had some of my workers intercept you on your way here.I was still not positive you were Jedi until you gave yourselves away by pulling out your lightsabers.Then the Yuuzhan Vong that were hiding nearby came out to make sure you would not escape," the governor ran an appraising eye over the two Jedi."We could use some strong new workers, especially ones that can use the force.The slaves who have no experience working in mines tend not to last too long.They don't know how to mine properly and we have frequent cave-ins as a result."

"The New Republic will stop you," Tenal Ka said boldly."They will not stand by and let you harbor Yuuzhan Vong slaves,"

"If the New Republic didn't care enough about Rygelia to send in its own intelligence agents to investigate in the first place, what's going to make them suddenly change their mind?

Tenal Ka and Jacen did not know what to say to that.

"We destroyed your ship, so even if you do escape from here, you have nowhere to go but into the mountains.With the weather conditions, I seriously doubt you would last long enough to find a town where you could steal a ship.And the New Republic already has its hands full, so it won't waste its time searching for two missing Jedi. "Having said all he wanted to say, the governor walked away from them and back towards the building he had come from.

"Move," the Vong behind Tenal Ka ordered in basic, shoving her forward.

The remaining Syynnode workers that had come back with them, returned to their normal duties in the mines.Now it was just she and Jacen, and the three Yuuzhan Vong warriors that had brought them there.

Maybe they could attempt some sort of escape, with the odds a little more on their side now.Jacen quickly nixed the idea though, because three, armed Vong warriors against him and Tenal Ka, who had no weapons and could not even move their hands, would be a futile attempt.They would need to be patient and wait until the right opportunity presented itself.

They were being led to what appeared to be a small storage bunker.With obvious disgust, Jacen watched one of the Yuuzhan Vong punch in a code into the keypad beside the door.They removed their living binders and threw them inside the bunker.Jacen grunted in pain as he landed on his throbbing shoulder.The Vong muttered some remarks in their own language and closed the door on them.

The room was completely dark, save for the small window slit that let in enough light so they could see each other's faces.It had obviously been used to store equipment or droids at one time but the bunker was completely bare now.

Jacen sat up on the cold metal floor, rubbing his numb hands together in an effort to get the feeling back in them.

Tenal Ka crouched down beside him, taking notice not for the first time at the awkward angle his shoulder was sticking out at."Your shoulder is dislocated," she said.

"Tell me something I didn't know,"

"I will have to put it back in place," she stated matter of factly.

Jacen groaned."I had a feeling you we going to say that,"

Placing one hand on his injured shoulder and the other on the upper part of his chest, she said, "I will count to three and then put it back in place,"

Jacen nodded his head.He could already feel the beads of sweat forming on his face, even though he was freezing.He gritted his teeth together, waiting for the inevitable.

"One – "

He tried to relax his body, but found every muscle in his body was as stiff as sullustan leather.

"Two – " 

Jacen was unable to keep himself from crying out, as the sickening sound of a bone popping back into place echoed throughout the room.He didn't think it was possible but his left shoulder actually hurt more now then before Tenal Ka had put it back into place.

When he felt recovered enough to trust his voice, he said, "I should have known you were going to do that,"

"How does it feel?"

"Don't ask," Jacen said, speaking through clenched teeth.He tried to block out the searing pain coursing through his shoulder, but he was unable to concentrate long enough to accomplish anything.

"It will get better," she said, sensing his obvious discomfort.

"That's good to know,"

"Why do you think the Yuuzhan Vong are working with the Syynnodes?"Tenal Ka said, trying to get his mind off of the pain.

"I don't know," he said, "but it doesn't make any sense.The Vong hate technology but here they are helping the Syynnodes mine the metals that will be used to create space cruisers and buildings like the ones we saw outside.The moment the Vong landed here they could have struck another major blow to the New Republic by wiping out another one of its sources for metals."

"They must have some sort of agreement,"

"Right," he said, the pain in his shoulder had subsided considerably now, "like the Vong aren't going to wipe out the planet after they've gotten what they wanted from the Syynnode."

"They are foolish to ally themselves with the Yuuzhan Vong," said Tenal Ka, "and even more so if they believe the Yuuzhan Vong will not betray them in the end.They have shown us no evidence that they can be bargained with,"

"And I don't think the Syynnodes made them have a sudden change of heart," Jacen said dryly.

"I noticed there were no worker droids outside," Tenal Ka observed.

"I noticed that too," said Jacen.Worker droids would be essential to any mining operation.They could be used to dig in the parts of the mines that are unstable without worrying about the loss of life, and they could carry a much larger load of mined metals then any human."I guess the Vong weren't willing to lower their standards enough to permit the use of droids,"

From outside the door of the bunker, their force enhanced hearing allowed them to hear voices conversing in Yuuzhan Vong outside.

The door swung open and in walked two Yuuzhan Vong warriors armed with amphistaffs.They looked similar to the ones that had brought them there originally, with their faces all cut up and tattooed.

Jacen and Tenal Ka got to their feet.

"You will come with us," the one on the left said, gesturing with his amphistaff at Tenal Ka.

Jacen stood protectively in front of her."You're not taking her anywhere," he said in his most authoritative voice.

The Vong spared him no more then a contempt glance before shoving him aside. The warrior towered over Tenal Ka, who readied herself in a fighting stance.

"Are you deaf, infidel?"The Vong snarled at her.

Tenal Ka remained silent, simply sizing up her opponent.With nothing but her bare hands, fighting against a creature this large and armed would be extremely difficult.But this would be the perfect opportunity for her and Jacen to try to escape.The odds would not get any better then this.

The Vong closest to her reared back its amphistaff and prepared to strike her with it.

Without thinking, Jacen charged the alien and jumped on its back.He grabbed at its neck, furiously trying to twist it so it would snap.When that did not work, he wrapped his hands around its thick, muscular neck in an effort to strangle it.

The Yuuzhan Vong was not standing around letting Jacen do that.He roared a bloodthirsty war cry, and swung his body back and forth, trying to throw the Jedi off of him.Jacen clung on tightly, though, refusing to let go.The warrior reached into a pouch on his waist and removed a blue, gooey-looking jelly substance.He slapped it against Jacen's back.

Jacen let go of his hold on the immediately, dropping to the floor, withering in agony.He clawed at the jelly substance clinging to his back, but it stubbornly refused to come off.It felt like all the nerves in his body were on fire.

The Vong warrior stood over him repulsed by the way Jacen fought against the pain.He placed a scaly foot on Jacen's to stomach to stop him from squirming.Jacen clenched his teeth together to keep from screaming out in pain.

The second warrior saw the look of horror on Tenal Ka's face, and said, "you will come with us now, or this one dies,"

She watched the warrior place the poisoned end of its amphistaff near Jacen's face.Jacen was barely conscious by that point, and did not even notice the fanged mouth on the weapon open wide to spray him with its venom.

"I will go with you," Tenal Ka said, accepting their ultimatum, and saying it loud enough so both warriors would hear her.

She let the warrior nearest her grab her by the arms and drag her towards the door.The other one removed its weapon from Jacen's face and backed away from him.Jacen's body had stopped moving altogether now, and the only way she could tell that he was still alive was by the rhythmic up and down movement of his chest.

She did not know what they had done to him or how badly he was hurt, but there was nothing she could do for him now.Tenal Ka was forced to let the Vong take her to what she was certain would be a much more agonizing experience then what Jacen had just endured.


	12. Evolving Relationships

CHAPTER TWELVE:

CHAPTER TWELVE:EVOLVING RELATIONSHIPS

Hours after setting out on their little expedition, Anakin found himself more confused then ever as he watched Tahiri sitting down in the sand with her back to him.Either then asking him to take off his socks and boots – which he had adamantly protested against doing – and to come join her, Tahiri had made little attempt to communicate with him.She seemed content to explore the area that had once served as her home on her own.Anakin himself had spent most of the afternoon by the landspeeder lost in thought.

Tahiri was still pretty embarrassed about the whole 'thank you' ordeal, which explained why she was doing her best to avoid talking to him.He just didn't get it – or her for that matter.If she had meant the kiss as more than just a thank you, why didn't she just tell him?

He would have spent the rest of the day thinking about it, but Tahiri was approaching the landspeeder, her clothes and face covered in dust.

"We should start heading back," she told him, averting his gaze, "it's going to be dark in a few hours and we don't want to be out here when that happens."She did not have a wrist chrono, but just by watching where the twin suns were settled in the sky, she knew it was around sixteen hundred hours.Knowing what time of day it was just by looking at the sky, was one of her old habits she had not lost when she had left the Sand People.

Wordlessly, they climbed in the landspeeder.It was going to be a long, quiet ride back to Mos Eisley but that was fine with Tahiri.As unusual as it was for her, she did not feel much like talking.

As it turned out, the trip was a whole lot shorter than they both had expected.

They had been traveling for a whole five minutes, when the landspeeder's engines started coughing, followed soon after by clouds of smoke coming out from under the hood.Seconds later, the speeder's engines stopped working completely and it dropped half a meter, hitting the sand with a loud thud.

Anakin had a worried look on his face as he climbed out of the speeder.He lifted up the hood, and thick, gray clouds of smoke poured out from it.Coughing, Anakin waved his hand back and forth in an effort to clear some of it away.When it did clear, what he saw did look encouraging.

"Can you fix it?"Tahiri said, coming out to join him.

Anakin scratched the back of his neck."I don't know," he said, leaning in and inspecting the damage.

"How bad is it?"

"Pretty bad," he answered, "the wires that connect the repulsorlift propulsion engines are burnt through.I might be able to rig something together to get it working again," he sounded doubtful though.

"But you can fix anything," Tahiri protested.

"No I can't," he said, looking up from the mess in front of him, "I can fix a lot of things but that's if I have the proper tools and parts with me.And I don't think we have any of that with us."

She had not wanted to hear that.If Anakin didn't think he could fix it then they were in trouble.She could not explain it, but she knew they needed to get moving."What can I do to help?"

"Check the landspeeder and see if there's anything in there we might be able to use to fix this,"

"What exactly am I looking for?"Mechanical stuff was not her department.

"Any tools or spare parts,"

She nodded and went to search the vehicle.

She rummaged through the speeder, checking beneath the seats but finding nothing.She opened the compartment beneath the dashboard and found a rusted looking hydrospanner.It did not even look like it worked, but it was all they had so she would bring it to Anakin.If anyone could make it work, he could.

When she returned to show him her find, he had his face stuck under the hood of the vehicle.

"Did you find anything?"He asked her.

She didn't answer him.

"Tahiri?"

When she still did not answer him, he looked up from the speeder's engine.Her face had gone ghostly white and she looked scared.

"Tahiri, what's wrong?"

Eyes wide, she said, "They're here,"

"Who's here?"

And then he heard it.The deep moan of a very large creature followed by inhuman shouts and shrieks.Tusken Raiders.They must have seen the smoke and were coming to investigate.Anakin swallowed hard.He had heard of his Uncle's own encounter with the Sand People, and if Ben Kenobi had not rescued him he probably would have been killed.But no one would be coming to rescue Tahiri and he because nobody knew they were out here.They were on their own.

Anakin ignited his lightsaber and Tahiri did the same, though he noticed she did it somewhat reluctantly.He understood her reluctance to fight.A tribe of Sand People had been her only family at one time, taking her in after her parents' deaths.Although he seriously doubted this was the same tribe that had taken her in.Even if they were, they were not likely to remember her.

He could hear their shrieks getting louder the closer they approached.He and Tahiri stood with their backs to each other, ready for an attack from any angle.

Tahiri could not understand why the Sand People were making so much noise.They would always find a way to sneak up or entrap their prey because that was how they hunted.Unless they had really changed that much since she had left, but that did not make any sense.If they made that much commotion they would scare away their unsuspecting prey.

Then it hit her: this was not the real attack.It was merely a diversion to make them think they would attack them from the sides because that's where all the noise was coming from.

Tahiri looked up the cliff wall in time to see four Tusken Raiders descending down it.Anakin followed her gaze.Seeing they were spotted, the four Raiders jumped down the rest of the way.Anakin expected them to be at least momentarily stunned afterwards – they were anything but that.Thrusting their gaderffii sticks high above their heads, they cried out in their strange language and charged the two Jedi.They paired off: two against Anakin and the remaining two against Tahiri.

Anakin jumped out of the way of their first swipe at his head, but he had feeling he would not be able to keep doing that.The two Tusken Raiders were too aggressive and unorthodox for him to plan any type of strategy he could use against them.They didn't give him a second to catch his breath._Maybe if I disarm them, they'll have the sense to see they're outmatched_, he thought hopefully.

He stared into their goggle and breath masked faces as they charged towards him again.This time, he held his ground and struck out with his lightsaber against their weapons.He cut one of their gaderffii sticks in half, but the second Raider avoided his swipe and the pointed end of his weapon grazed the flesh of Anakin's arm, sending a searing pain up his left forearm.He did his best to block it out.He needed to concentrate. 

The one he had disarmed ran at him full throttle.These guys just did not give up.Not wanting to kill it, he used the force to hurl it into the cliff wall with enough force that the Raider did not get back up.

His other attacker circled him warily, after seeing what Anakin had just done to its companion.

Anakin found it strange that only four Tusken Raiders had come after them.A whole tribe must consist of at least thirty or forty of them.

That was when he saw two full-grown banthas, with a third one in tow, heading in their direction.The first two had three riders each on their backs.Anakin concluded they had to have been the source of the original noise, attempting to distract them from seeing the Tusken Raiders who had been trying to sneak down the cliff wall. 

He circled his remaining attacker, seeing Tahiri had one left to deal with as well.

The remaining Tusken Raider was honking at Tahiri in its bizarre language.It was talking – if you could call it that – way too fast for her to even pick up one word of what it was saying, but she knew a battle cry when she heard one. 

After regrettably having to kill the first one that had attacked her, she was searching for alternatives so she would not have to do the same thing again.Half of her was torn at having to kill them, while the rest of her knew it was either kill or be killed.That was the kind of world the Sand People lived in.

She tried a different tactic this time.Anticipating its next move, she ducked out of the way of its thrashing gaderffii stick and tumbled to the side.It was difficult for her to get a read on the Tusken Raider's mind because it was such a jumbled mess of aggressive feelings and survival instincts – that she miss-guessed its next move.She tried to jump out of the way, but the Raider's finely toned reflexes were too fast.It rammed its gaderffii stick against her shins and sent her sprawling onto her back.

The Tusken Raider honked in triumph and held its gaderffii stick high above its head.

Tahiri felt like she was four again: terrified as the Sand People towered over her, waiting for them to attack her.It was the same situation she was in now.She was that frightened little girl, frozen in place, who could not even bring herself to ignite her blade.

The Tusken Raider cocked its head to the side when she did not make a move to escape, and the hold on its weapon wavered slightly as it brought it down towards her chest.She braced herself for what would happen next, but it never came.

She watched the Tusken Raider cautiously back away from her, its masked face locked on hers while it yelled something to its companions.The other Raider, still engaged with Anakin, broke off its attack with the other Jedi.Together, they picked up the two fallen Tusken Raiders and carried them to the waiting bantha's.They mounted the beasts, and the remaining Sand People obediently followed them away from the two Jedi.They rode away in single file, and disappeared past one of the rock cliff sides.

Anakin helped Tahiri to her feet."Are you okay?"She looked a little dazed.

"Yeah, I'm fine,"

"What happened?"

"I think it recognized me,"

She knew how crazy it sounded but she didn't care.That was the only explanation as to why it hadn't just killed her outright.Was it actually possible that had been the tribe that had rescued her?Could they really remember her after her so many years?

"Hey," Anakin said gently, knowing the direction her thoughts were taking, "we should get moving.We may not get lucky a second time,"

It was then she noticed the scarlet colour that was in patches on his clothes and spreading across his lower left arm.

"You're hurt," she said, alarmed.

"It's nothing,"

"And its going to stay that way," she grabbed his shirt and dragged him back to the landspeeder – or rather what remained of it.

While the two of them had been fighting for their lives, the other Sand People that had rode in on the banthas had made quick work of their vehicle.They had ransacked it, taking whatever they thought was valuable and tearing everything else apart that they thought wasn't.That included parts of the engine and anything that had been lying loose in the speeder.Pieces of the vehicle that had been ripped off were now lying strewn about in the sand.

"I guess that solves our problem of whether or not I can fix it," Anakin remarked.

"What's left?"

"Nothing that will be of any use to us, except this," he pulled apart what was left of the driver's seat and dropped it into the sand.He opened a compartment that had been beneath it, pulled out a small survival pack and handed it to Tahiri."Now I understand why they put a secret compartment in here,"

She sifted through the pack, finding two canteens full of water – and a third one that was empty, a standard med kit, a glow rod, and some food rations, probably enough to give them two meals out of it.

She took out the med kit and started cleaning Anakin's wound.It was not too deep but it might get infected if he didn't keep it covered.She saw wince as she applied the disinfectant to the gash, but he didn't complain.

"How far do you think we have to walk?"He said to her, as she bandaged up his arm

She shrugged."It's at least a day's walk, maybe more.And we only have a few hours of daylight left.We should cover as much ground as we can before it gets dark."She finished wrapping up his injured arm and put the med kit back in the pack.

Swinging the pack over his shoulders, Anakin let Tahiri lead him back to civilization.

Anakin realized he could not have picked a better person to be trapped in the Tatooine desert with.Tahiri knew this place like the back of her hand and pushed forward without hesitation.He was thankful she knew where she was going because everything out here looked the same to him.There was just sand, sand and more sand.They came across outcroppings of rock and small caverns in cliff walls every so often, but they had seen no signs of life since their encounter with the Sand People back at the Jundland Wastes.

Anakin's skin felt dry and his lips were chapped.He knew he was going to have one, painful sunburn when this was all over.

There was no shade, so they were forced to walk in the impossible heat, only taking short five-minute breaks from it in the tiny caves they would come across.A few times they had been forced to take shelter for longer because of the many sandstorms that would pass through the desert.

They were rationing their water, taking only small sips when necessary.That was why they had decided on only talking when necessary.Otherwise, their mouths would become drier faster and they would need to drink more water.

Tahiri walked a few feet in front of him, constantly scanning the area to make sure they were heading in the right direction.Out here, she was in her element.She was completely at ease with the situation they were currently stuck in.He had never seen her so comfortable with taking charge like this before.

He stared at her back, wondering if a part of her was still upset with him for the way he had reacted to her kiss or if she was still thinking about it – because he certainly still was.With nothing else going on, he couldn't get it out of his head.He hoped their friendship would not suffer because of it.Anakin sighed.When did things between them get so complicated?

"You're staring at me," Tahiri said without turning around.

"Sorry," he said, his cheeks reddening.Had he really been looking at her for that long? 

"It's getting dark," she said, looking up at the approaching dark sky."We better find somewhere to spend the night,"

Anakin had not even noticed that the twin suns had almost set.

They decided to backtrack about half a kilometer to where they had spotted a small cave in the cliff rocks.The opening was large enough for them to get inside without stooping over.When Anakin turned on the glow rod, they saw there was not much more room for them to do anything besides stretch out their legs, but it would do for one night.

Anakin dropped unceremoniously to the cave's floor, relieved to be off his sore, aching feet after so long.

Tahiri noticed the bandage on his arm was covered in blood.She took out the med kit and sat down across from him.

"You should have said something," she chided him as she took off the bloody bandage.

"I didn't think it was necessary,"

"When did you think it would become necessary?When you bled to death?"

"What's your problem?"A little cut was making her a lot more upset then she should have been.

"Nothing," she said, putting a fresh bandage on his arm.

"You're upset with me because of what happened earlier,"

"Nothing happened earlier except a stupid mistake," she said without looking at him.

"I didn't think it was a mistake," he said after a few moments of awkward silence.

Tahiri snorted and this time looked at him when she spoke."Riiight.That's why you wanted to know why I did it,"

"You just surprised me, that's all," he tried to explain to her.

"I don't need you to spare my feelings, Anakin," she said to him in an icy tone. 

"Tahiri – "

"Don't worry, it won't happen again," 

"Tahiri, would you please just hear me out?"She was being so impossible.

"Why?So you can tell me that what happened was an accident and that it doesn't change our friendship?I really don't want to hear it, Anakin,"

Without thinking, Anakin leaned forward and kissed her full on the lips.She stiffened at first, and then kissed him back with equal force.It was the most impulsive thing he had ever done.It felt different then the last time because now he knew that he _wanted_ to kiss her.He was disappointed though, when she abruptly pushed him away.

"What?"

Her face completely serious, she said, "did you do that because you wanted to or because you thought you had to?"

"I kissed you because I wanted to," he responded without hesitation.

"Oh,"

Not knowing what else to do, he went to kiss her again, but she placed both hands firmly on his chest to stop him.

"Are you sure you want to do this?"She said."Because once we start this we'll never be able to go back to being just friends,"

"I think it's worth the risk," he said, gently caressing her cheek with his hand.

"You have no idea how weird I've felt around you these last few months," she confessed.

"I think I have some sort of an idea," he said with a smile."You wonder why you suddenly feel awkward around someone who's supposed to be your best friend.And why everything you say or do when you're with that person makes you self-conscious, but there is nowhere else you would rather be then right there with them."

"Something like that," said Tahiri."It sounds like you've thought about this a lot."

He blushed."Well, it's not like I've spent endless hours thinking about the possibility of you and me together."

"I've spent a lot of time thinking about it too," she said, placing her hand on top of his.

"And what did you think?"

"That it would be kind of weird since we've known each other for so long," she admitted, "but it's the kind of weird I wouldn't mind getting use to,"

And this time when he went to kiss her, she didn't try and stop him.When their lips connected neither one pulled away.This was their first _real_ kiss.Tahiri ran her fingers through his dark hair and Anakin pulled her closer to him.She melted into his arms and Anakin had never imagined kissing her would feel this good.

When they parted, Tahiri leaned her forehead against his."You know, I don't think your Uncle had this in mind when I said I was coming here to help you,"

Anakin chuckled."You're probably right about that,"

"So," she began slowly, her brilliant green eyes staring up at him, "what do we do now?"

"We should probably get some sleep.We've got a long walk ahead of us tomorrow,"

It had not dawned on him until that moment that the sleeping arrangements had just gotten that much more complicated, but Tahiri soon solved the problem.She turned off the glow rod and moved beside him, nestling her head in his shoulder.

"Goodnight, Anakin,"

"Goodnight, Tahiri,"

She didn't say anything else, so he thought she had drifted off to sleep – then he heard her say his name.

"Anakin?"

"Yeah?"

"I had a really good time today,"

Anakin smiled, though he knew she would not be able to see it in the darkness."So did I,"


	13. Assumptions And Presumptions

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: ASSUMPTIONS AND PRESSUMPTIONS

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:ASSUMPTIONS AND PRESUMPTIONS

Pacing inside his cell and worried out of his mind, Jacen wondered for the millionth time where they had taken her.He hadn't a clue how long she had been gone, but he had regained consciousness hours ago to an empty room.

It made him sick to his stomach to about what they might be doing to Tenal Ka.He hated to think of what he would be capable of if something happened to her.

He had tried several times to communicate with her through the force, but would only get the briefest response back, as if she were fighting to stay conscious.

When pacing didn't work to help calm him, he had started pounding on the door, screaming for someone to tell him where Tenal Ka was.Naturally, no one had answered him, and he had eventually given up on that.He tried a few Jedi calming techniques, but could not calm himself enough to make them work.

He sat in a corner on one side of the room, staying as far away from the blue, gooey substance that had attacked him as possible.

When he had woken up, the blue jelly was still stuck to his back but was no longer living.With great pleasure, he had peeled it off of himself.Some of his nerves were still tingling from the experience, and his entire body ached when he moved but he was not permanently damaged, at least he hoped not.

The jelly had to have been some kind of weapon the Yuuzhan Vong would use to temporarily paralyze their enemy with pain.Though he doubted that most had the chance to regain consciousness.That could only mean one thing: when they were finished with Tenal Ka they would come for him.

The sound of the door to the bunker hissing open, caught Jacen's attention.He wanted to jump to his feet, but he was still too sore from his encounter with the goo to do so.

The darkness of night fell into the room through the open door.There were some grunts and snarls, and then a silhouetted figure was thrown into the room.The door slammed shut before Jacen could even reach Tenal Ka's side.

When he did reach her, he draped her arm over his shoulders."Lean on me," he said gently, and for once, Tenal Ka did not argue.

He led her over to the section of the room that was illuminated by the moonlight coming through the tiny window slit high up on the wall.When he saw that she was shivering, he took off his own thin sweater and put it over her head.It was not much but it was better then nothing.That was when he noticed her right arm below the elbow was missing.

"They took off my prosthetic arm," she said, when she saw where he was looking."They said it was an abomination," in a weak voice she added, "they know I'm sick, Jacen,"

"What?How could they know that?"

"They did tests on me," she said slowly.

"What kind of tests?"Jacen said in a deadly voice.

"They connected me to some creature that read off my vital signs to them,"

"Like a yammosk?" Said Jacen, thinking of the living creature that the Yuuzhan Vong used as a war coordinator to control their coralskippers during their first strike in this galaxy.

"No, this creature was different.It reads your brain activity, nervous system, and other areas of the body," she explained."I think they are using it to try and discover a weakness in the Jedi, but they found my disease instead,"

"We have to get out of here," said Jacen.He could not let the Vong come back and take her again.They no longer had a ship to take them anywhere, but at the moment that was the least of their worries.

"Do you have a plan?"

"Well, it's not a brilliant plan," he admitted, "but it will work nonetheless,"

Jaina would never admit to any mechanical task being beyond her ability, but the 'project' of making the _First Mate_ space worthy again was enough to make even her take a defeatist approach to the repairs.

The tiny engine room was a complete disaster area that looked no better then when she had started the time consuming repairs two days ago.She was making some progress, though.Communications systems were starting to come back online.There was still quite a bit of static when she turned on the comm, but it was a start.Ganner's job was to get the comm system fully functional again.A weak distress signal would probably not get through Scelvic's atmosphere to any nearby ships, but when she got the shuttle up and running again, they could send a message requesting immediate assistance once they were in orbit.

Of course, that wouldn't happen if Jaina didn't get the remaining engines working again.

"Need a hand?" Said Ganner, poking his head into the engine room.

"No," Jaina replied, "I have everything under control,"

Ganner regarded the mess of loose cables, spare parts, and scorched machinery, but said nothing.

"Did you get the comm system working?"Jaina said, as she removed a piece of burnt metal plating off the wall.

"Yeah, it's working again," he told her, "there's still some static but I don't think it's going to get any better."

Jaina fiddled with the wires that had been behind the piece of metal plating, seeing if she could re-connect them with one of the salvageable engines."Good.At least we'll be able to get out a distress message,"

"You should take a break," Ganner said, stepping into the engine room.

"I can't.I have too many repairs I still have to make."

"What, you can't take an hour or so break?The shuttle's not going anywhere," 

"That's exactly my point," Jaina said.She stopped her fiddling with the cables and turned around to face him – nearly bumping into his chest in the process.This enclosed area was too small for the both of them to be in there together.

"You're exhausted," Ganner stated.

She shrugged."We're all a little tired – "

"That's not what I meant," Ganner said, cutting her off."You spend all day and most of the night in here fixing whatever it is your trying to fix, but has it made the repairs go any faster?No.You don't have to do all this work on your own, you know.Lusa and I aren't completely mechanically illiterate,"

Since he stood a good head or more taller than her, Jaina had to look up at him when she spoke."I never said you were.It's just that most of this stuff I can do on my own,"

"Why are you so afraid to let us help you?"Ganner accused."What are you hiding from?"

"I'm not hiding from anything," she said, getting defensive, "and why would you care anyways?"

"Because I care about you," he responded in a sincere voice.

Jaina wasn't buying that load of bantha fodder for a second."I'm supposed to believe that?"

"Well, yeah,"

"Do I really look that stupid to you, Ganner?"She said, her voice rising in volume."I know the only reason you've been hanging around me these past few months is because you think you can get me into bed with you,"

"I had no idea your opinion of me was so high," Ganner said, slightly hurt.

"Did you ever give me a reason to think otherwise?"

"You're right," Ganner admitted, "why would you think otherwise when you've been too busy moping around and too absorbed in your own problems to notice anyone but yourself."

Jaina blinked."Are you calling me selfish?"

"No, I'm calling you stupid," he clarified for her."Stupid because you keep pushing away anyone who cares about you.And because you think the only reason I'm standing here, talking to you, is because you think I want to have sex with you.If that were the case, isn't it strange that I haven't made a pass at you yet?I had no idea you were so full of yourself, Jaina,"

She didn't have to listen to him insult her or accuse her of distancing herself from everyone.He didn't have the right.He didn't even know her.She pushed past him and left the engine room, but Ganner followed her.

"Sure, runaway, just like Zekk did," Ganner said, from right behind her.

"You don't know anything about what happened between me and Zekk," she said in a dangerous voice.

"I know that he hurt you deeply," Ganner said in a quiet voice, "and that it's not the first time that's happened,"

"Let me guess," Jaina said, "you've been talking to Jacen?"

Ganner nodded his head.

"My twin brother has a big mouth,"

"He's worried about you," Ganner said in Jacen's defense.

"I don't need him to worry about me.I'm _fine_,"

"Why is it so hard for you to admit that Zekk's leaving hurt you?"

"Stay out of my personal life," she snapped at him."Don't presume to think that you know what I'm going through because you don't know me at all.And I don't want you to know me," she added."You've never cared about anyone but Ganner Rhysode and what suits his needs.So, excuse me if I don't want to spill my life story to some arrogant, self-centered Jedi,"

"If that's what you really think of me, then I guess neither of us knows each other as well as we thought we did," Ganner said in a fed up voice."Yeah, I haven't exactly been the model Jedi but I'm not the scoundrel you make me out to be.I _do_ care about you.I'll admit, at first I started hanging around you because you were available, but that quickly changed when I talked to your brother.It looked like you could use someone in your life that didn't walk on eggshells around you and who would treat you like a normal human being.So, if you still think you have me all figured it, that's fine, go on believing I'm some self-absorbed person, who cares about no one but himself, I really don't give a damn,"

Ganner brushed past Jaina, clearly angry with her, and headed in the general direction of the cockpit.

She didn't think it was possible, but her harsh words had actually hurt him.

His initial sincerity had caught her off guard, and his prying into her personal life had made her furious.Now, though, after everything that had been said between them, she felt like she was the one who should be ashamed.She had judged Ganner wrongly, and now, the one person who had tried to treat her like a regular human being, while everyone else acted like she was a thermal detonator waiting to go off, probably hated her guts now.Ganner was right.She was stupid.


	14. No One Is Perfect

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: penny Normal penny 34 54 2001-09-24T16:06:00Z 2001-10-12T16:43:00Z 4 1976 11264 93 22 13832 9.2720 0 0 

CHAPTER FOURTEEN:  NO ONE'S PERFECT

          "Want some help?"

          Lusa turned away from her job of patching up the _First Mate's_ hull and regarded Jaina curiously.  "I thought you were fixing the engines,"

          "I was," Jaina said, "I just decided to take a short break,"

          Lusa applied another layer of sealant to a leaky spot on the hull.  "We haven't been able to tear you away from the inside of the shuttle all day.  What happened to make you suddenly change your mind?"

          Jaina leaned her back up against the hull and said, "Ganner happened, that's what,"

          "Do you want to talk about it?"

          "I thought I had him all figured out, but now…" she trailed off with a sigh.

          "Now you realize you were completely off course about him?" Lusa finished for her.

          "Yeah, that's pretty much sums it up," Jaina said in a glum voice.

          "What happened?"  

          "He came by the engine room to tell me I needed a break.  We start arguing, and then he tells me he was just trying to be my friend all this time,"

          "Did you believe him?"

          "Of course I didn't.  And then I said some pretty harsh things to him," with a guilty look on her face, she added, "I think I really hurt him,"

          "You two fight an awful lot.  Maybe you – "

          "Whoa, Lusa," Jaina said cutting her friend off in mid sentence before she could finish that thought, "I do not have a crush on Ganner,"

          "You obviously care about him, though," said Lusa, "or else why would you be out here telling me you think you hurt him?"

          Jaina didn't know what to say to that.

          "Look at it this way," Lusa began, "do you fight with Ganner because you really don't like him or because you're afraid that if you let him get close to you, you might realize he's not such a bad guy after all,"

          "I don't know," Jaina said, as she pushed back a strand of brown hair that had fallen in her face.

          "I think you do know,"

          Jaina blew out a long breath of air.  "You think I should go talk to him, don't you?"

          Lusa went back to applying sealant to the shuttle's outer hull.  "I think you've already come to that conclusion on your own,"

          Anakin felt like a brand new person as he ran through a routine preflight sequence on the small ship he had 'borrowed' from the Jedi Academy's hanger bay.  He didn't know how to describe what he was feeling, but it felt like he was seeing clearly again for the first time in months.

          Tahiri and he had run into an unusual number of sandstorms on their way back to Mos Eisley – which Tahiri had explained was because Tatooine was right in the middle of its sandstorm season.  That was what had made them take a lot longer then anticipated to get back.  Not that either of them had minded, though.

          Anakin had expected being cramped together in a small space for sometimes hours at a time, would be somewhat awkward after what had happened between them, but it wasn't.  They both did their share of talking and listening as if nothing had changed.  

          From Anakin's point of view, nothing really had.  Tahiri was still his best friend – and always would be.  It was just that now she was someone he shared an even deeper connection with.  He would be kidding himself if he said that he had always thought of her as just a friend.  The truth was, she had always meant much more to him then that, but he had not realized how deep his feelings for her ran until a few days ago.

          "Are we all ready for takeoff?"  Tahiri said to him as she slid into the seat beside him.

          "Just about," Anakin told her.  "No offense, but it will be good to be back at the Jedi Academy where there's lots of trees and no sand."

          Tahiri nodded, a thoughtful expression on her face.  "It was nice to back," she said, "but it isn't my home anymore, and it hasn't been for a long time."

          Anakin checked the boarding ramp, to make sure it was up, and then lifted the ship out of the docking bay and headed towards space.

          The air traffic on Tatooine was nothing compared to that of Courscant, allowing Anakin to clear the planet's atmosphere in little time.

          "You should call your mom and let her know you're all right," Tahiri said as soon as they were in space.  "She's probably really worried about you,"

          "I guess I should.  I haven't spoken to her since I left Courscant,"

          "What about your dad?  Are you going to talk to him?"

          "I wouldn't know what to say to him,"

          Tahiri placed her hand on his.  "You can't avoid him forever,"

          "I know," he said, getting to his feet, "but I can keep it up for a little longer,"

          He left the cockpit area and went in search of the ship's single HoloNet counsel.   Tahiri stayed where she was, wanting to give him some time alone to speak with his parents.

          Sitting down in front of the HoloNet device, Anakin took a deep breath and turned it on.  The ship was a supply runner, and although nothing onboard was state of the art, it did have a functioning HoloNet unit.  The captain of the ship would need one to get in touch with all of his or her clients.

          He punched in the number for his house on Courscant and waited.  He wasn't sure what he would do if his dad answered, and he didn't think his dad would know what to say to the son he blamed for his best friend's death either.  But Anakin was saved when his mother's face appeared on the screen in front of him.

          Leia's eyes widened in delightful surprise.  "Anakin!"

          "Hi, mom,"

          Concern radiated off her delicate features.  "Are you okay?  Luke told me about what happened with Tahiri,"

          Anakin cringed at the memory of what he had done, but quickly put it behind him.  It was an accident, and Tahiri had forgiven him – end of story.

          "I'm okay," he assured her, "and so is Tahiri,"

          "Tahiri is with you, then?"

          He nodded his head.

          "That's good, because Luke has had his hands full trying to convince Kam that she was right in going after you on her own,"

          "Mom, Tahiri can take care of herself,"

          "And you as well, it appears," Leia said, raising an inquisitive eyebrow at her son.

          Anakin felt his face warming.  He couldn't tell how much of his emotions she was picking up on through the force or how much of it was just maternal intuition, but he really did not want to discuss what was going on between him and Tahiri with his mother.

          "So, uh, how have you been?"  He said quickly.

          "Worried sick about you,"

          He had never meant to scare her like that.  "I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to just run off like that, but I needed to get away,"

          Leia nodded her head in understanding.  "As hard as it may be for you to believe, your father was worried about you too.  He hates himself for what he said to you,"

          Anakin bit down on his lip but said nothing.

          "He's here, if you want to talk to him," Leia said gently.

          Anakin hesitated.  What would he say to him?  Did he even want to talk to him?  He made his decision.  "I can't talk to him yet, mom,"

          "It's okay.  I understand, and I'm sure your father will too,"

          "Thanks," Anakin said, relieved that he could avoid his dad a little longer.

          Leia looked like she wanted to say more, but kept her mouth closed.  She still looked worried.  _Now that she knows I'm all right, she shouldn't look this upset_, Anakin thought, _there must be something else bothering her_.

          "There's something wrong," Anakin stated.

          "Jaina never showed up at the conference being held in the Dezzlec system," Leia began slowly.  "She should have been there days ago, but no one's heard from her.  There's more," Leia continued, before Anakin could say anything.  "No one's heard from Jacen and Tenal Ka either.  They were supposed to come back to Yavin Four and report to Luke whether or not they found anything.  If there did turn out to be Yuuzhan Vong captives, they weren't supposed to try and rescue them on their own."

          Anakin sank back into his seat, a troubled expression on his face.  Both his brother and sister had been missing for days, and to top it all off his mother had been worried about him.  There was no way he could sit around and do nothing when his siblings were probably in trouble.  He had to do something.

          "Jacen and Tenal Ka went to Rygelia, right?"

          Leia, sensing what her son was planning, said, "I know what you're thinking, Anakin, but you are not going after them on your own," 

          "Someone has to," he argued with her, "and I'm just a short jump from Rygelia.  It would take too long for anyone else, including you and dad, to reach them.  You go after Jaina and once we've found Jacen and Tenal Ka, we'll meet you at Chandrila."

          "You know your father," said Leia, "he's had the _Falcon_ ready to go as soon as Luke called us yesterday and told us Jaina and Jacen were missing.  I still don't like the idea of you and Tahiri going after your brother on your own, but you're right, they could be in trouble.  Just please, be careful."

          "I promise I'll be careful,"

          Leia knew him too well to believe that.  "Anakin, I'm serious.  No heroics or purposely putting yourself in danger.  Do I make myself clear?"

          "Just find Jaina, mom," and then Anakin signed off before his mother could try and talk him out of doing anything foolish.

          Leia stared at the blank screen in front of her and sighed.  She had known there was no way she would win that battle with Anakin.  Her own kids were as stubborn as her and Han put together, which meant that if there was danger, they would not shy away from it.  They would probably run straight towards it, waving their lightsabers.  Maybe if she and Han had been better parents they would have taught their kids that you don't go out of your way looking for trouble.  But Jacen, Jaina and Anakin were not stupid.  They had common sense inside them somewhere – she only wished they would exercise the use of it more often.                   

          With an obvious hesitation in her step, Jaina made her way to the _Mate's_ cockpit.  She hadn't planned what she was going to say to Ganner; all she knew was that she owed him an apology.

          He was lying on his back under the control board, reconnecting wires into their correct ports.  He did not look up when he heard her approach.

          "Ganner, can we talk?"

          "I'm busy right now," he said without looking up from his work.

          "It's important,"

          "I thought we both said everything there was to say earlier,"

          She sighed.  "I'm sorry, okay?"

          "Sorry for what?"

          He wasn't going to make this any easier for her, was he?  "I shouldn't have said what I said without first getting to know you."

          "I had no idea you actually cared," Ganner said, getting up from under the control board and wiping his dirty hands on his pants.

          Jaina looked at the floor.  "Neither did I,"

          "Look, maybe I gave you the wrong impression about me – "

          "No, that's not it," Jaina said, shaking her head, "or at least that's only part of the reason I didn't want you getting close to me.  It's just…I'm having a hard time trusting anyone since Zekk left again," she explained.  Why was she telling him this?  

          "That's completely understandable," Ganner said in a sympathetic tone, "Jacen told me – "

          "Jacen doesn't know anything," said Jaina, "he thinks Zekk and I got into a big fight – which we did – and then he decided to leave.  But Jacen doesn't know all the details.  I've been hiding the truth from him and everyone else."

          "What did happen between you two?"

          He didn't ask it to sound nosy or to pry into her personal life.  He asked it because he wanted to know what Zekk had done to hurt her so bad that she was keeping everyone at arm's length from her.

          With a painful expression on her face, she said, "you know that Zekk turned to the dark side a few years back, right?  And then when we defeated the Shadow Academy he came back to the light?"

          Ganner slowly nodded his head.

          She moved away from him and looked out the glass view port.  At leas that was still intact.  One crack in it and their hopes to get the ship space worthy again would have been crushed.

          "He worked hard to prove to everyone – and to himself – that his turning to the dark side was a thing of the past and would never happen again," she continued.  "Everything was fine until the last mission we went on.  He used the dark side of the force to save my life and to defeat an old enemy of his," she bit down on her lower lip, and then said, "afterwards, he told me he couldn't stay because he was afraid he was falling to the dark side again.  So I gave him two choices: he could either stay and let me help him, or leave and never come back.  He chose to leave.   The only thing worse then his leaving," Jaina said, struggling to keep her voice from shaking, "was what he left behind with me.

          "While I was recovering in the med center, I made him tell me everything about his past as a Dark Jedi with the Shadow Academy, since he had always kept so much of it hidden from me.  The things he did…" she trailed off.  When she found her voice again, she said, "he killed people – innocent people – for no other reason then because they stood in the way of the Second Imperium's goals.  He told me the Shadow Academy tortured its captives, and he participated in it.  And he enjoyed it," she choked over the last words.

          "He just dumped all his excess baggage on me and then took off.  He doesn't even care that now I'm stuck with it.  I bet he never stopped to think that I would have a hard time dealing with it," tears were streaming down her face now and she did not even make an effort to wipe them away.  "But that's just like Zekk.  He always did a better job of taking care of himself then anyone else."

          Unsure of what he should do, Ganner reached a tentative hand out to touch her shoulder and pulled her towards him.  She resisted at first, and he was afraid he had done the wrong thing – but she enfolded into him, burying her face against his shoulder.  He did not know what else to do except hold her and let her cry.          


	15. On The Run

CHAPTER FIFTEEN penny Normal penny 44 38 2001-09-24T16:08:00Z 2001-11-03T02:07:00Z 3 1707 9730 81 19 11949 9.2720 0 0 

CHAPTER FIFTEEN:  ON THE RUN

          "Hey, I need some help in here!" Jacen yelled at the top of his lungs, banging his fists on the door to the bunker.

          He knew they were out there and that they could hear him, because he could feel two distinct voids in the force right outside the door.  He looked over at Tenal Ka's still frame sprawled out on the floor, and started pounding on the door again.

          "If she dies in here, you're superior will hold you responsible,"

          That got their attention as Jacen had hoped it would.  

          The door opened and in walked two Yuuzhan Vong guards.  Just by glancing at them briefly, Jacen knew they were not the same ones that had taken Tenal Ka yesterday.  The two Vong that had come in yesterday, had been completely grotesque to look at.  These two must have been at the bottom of the food chain by the look of the smooth skin on their faces with very few scars or tattoos, and they were not missing any fingers or ears like so many of the higher ranking warriors.

          They walked in and regarded Tenal Ka's unmoving form on the bare floor.

          "What is wrong with that one?"  One of the Vong glowered at Jacen.

          "I don't know," Jacen said, running his fingers through his hair, "when she came back last night she looked sick, and then this morning she wouldn't wake up,"

          The second Vong guard knelt over her body, inspecting it.

          "She's not breathing," Jacen said in a panicky voice.  "She needs a doctor,"

          The Yuuzhan Vong did not know where to check for a pulse on an infidel, but it could see no up and down movement of the upper part of the body that would indicate breathing.  It leaned in closer to get a better look.

          A hand shot up and gouged through the unprotected membrane below the armpit where there was no armor.  The warrior howled out loud, more because of the fact that he had been tricked then out of pain.  Tenal Ka did not give the alien a chance to recover.  She reared back her fist and struck a blow right into the Vong's esophagus.  Any other creature would have dropped like a ton of a duracrete bricks, but the Vong merely staggered backwards.

          Jacen did not waste a second.  Before the other guard could help out its counterpart, he used all the strength in his body to ram it against the wall.  Jacen's teeth shook at the jolting impact, but he did not back down.  While the Vong was momentarily stunned, he reached into his pockets and smacked the blue, jelly-like substance into the alien's eyes.  The Vong roared and clawed at the goo clinging to its face.  Jacen used the distraction to grab the guard's thick skull and smash it against the floor.  The Yuuzhan Vong was out cold after that.

          Tenal Ka was busy with the remaining guard.  She dodged left and right to avoid its crushing blows.  She kicked at its unprotected kneecaps with such force that she heard a loud POP!  The creature grunted and dropped to one knee.  Using it to her advantage, she jumped out of the reach of the Vong's extended arms and hurried towards Jacen, who was just getting to his feet.  They rushed out the open door, slamming it shut behind them.  With a clamping down sound, the door locked on its own.

          They dropped to their knees, alert for anyone who might have seen them or heard all the commotion.  It was still early, though, and none of the Syynnode workers or slaves were around.  They rounded a corner of the bunker, and ducked behind some crates.

          "Well, that was great," Jacen said, catching his breath, "out of all the Vong here, we get the two without weapons,"

          "It does not matter," Tenal Ka said, trying to catch her own breath as well, "we have to get out of here before anyone figures out we have escaped.  The Yuuzhan Vong they send after us will not be as young or inexperienced as those two were,"

          It would only be a matter of time before someone noticed that there were no longer any guards standing outside their bunker, and Jacen hoped to be far away from there before that happened.

          Looking out from their hiding place, they spotted no one in the vicinity.  Together, they raced for the snow-covered woods of Rygelia.

          "We all ready to go?"  Said Ganner, taking a seat in the co-pilot's chair.

          "As ready as we'll ever be," she answered, running one last diagnostic on the shuttle's systems.  Nothing would be in optimal condition, but she did not want to lift them off the ground before making sure the shuttle was not going to start falling apart the second they were in the air.  As it was, Jaina had to use all of her ingenuity – and then some, to just make sure they would be able to lift off the ground.  Once they were in space, though, she was not sure how long the quickly cobbled together repairs would last.

          "Is Lusa strapped in back there?"

          "Yeah, she's ready to take off,"

          Lusa was sitting in the back near the engine room compartment, and would that way be able to comm them and let them know if anything went wrong before things got too critical.

          Holding her breath, Jaina lifted the _First Mate_ off the ground.  The shuttle wobbled under her control, and the hull started groaning as it picked up speed.

          "Doesn't sound too reliable," Ganner noted.

          "Are you worried I didn't do a good job with the repairs?"  Jaina said, not taking her eyes off the glass view port in front of her.

          "You're repairs I trust," he said, "this hunk of junk I don't,"

          "This hunk of junk may save us yet," said Jaina.  "As soon as we clear the atmosphere, start transmitting our distress signal, but remember to warn approaching ships the Yuuzhan Vong may be nearby," 

          As she flew them further away from the landscape of Scelvic, Jaina found herself getting distracted from the not-so-easy task of piloting the damaged shuttle.

          She had expected Ganner to give her a hard time or at least rub it in her face that she had broken down in front of him, but he hadn't.  He had not even mentioned what had happened only hours before.  Once again, she had jumped to the wrong conclusion about Ganner.  Why did she always assume the worst about him?

          He was the last person in the universe she had expected to fall apart in front of, and then to have him just hold her to help her get through it.  She never thought getting everything off her chest that she had been holding in for months now would actually make her feel better. _ So why didn't I tell him that?_

          Forcing herself to focus on the task at hand, she flew the unstable _Mate_ through the atmosphere of Scelvic.  Without her even telling him to do so, Ganner began broadcasting their distress signal on all frequencies, and set the message on repeat.   There had to be someone out there who could hear them that was not Yuuzhan Vong.  

          It could be hours or even days before someone got their message and came to rescue them.  Jaina figured that if the repairs held, then maybe they could hold it in space for a day or two at the most.  After that, life support, environmental controls, and all the other systems she had barely been able to fix in the first place, would start falling apart.

          After the first three hours went by, Jaina had stopped checking her chrono altogether.  The bright side of the situation was that no Yuuzhan Vong ships had showed up, yet.  If they did, then Jaina would do her best to get them back down to Scelvic's surface.  There, they would at least have a fighting chance of beating the Vong in ground combat, or try to hide from them in the depths of Scelvic's forests.  That was why she was keeping them in especially close orbit around the planet.

          She and Ganner had held conversations over the comm with Lusa for the first couple of hours, but when they had run out of things to say, they decided to turn it off for a while.

          Despite the fact that they were facing no immediate threat, Jaina would not leave her seat.  If a Vong cruiser did show up, that extra few seconds could save their lives.

          Alone with Ganner, the two of them had not spoken much.  Jaina kept herself busy with constantly checking the instruments in front of her, and Ganner seemed content to just close his eyes and get some much needed sleep.

          He had his eyes closed now, and was not sure if he would hear her but she said it anyways.  "Thanks,"

          Without opening his eyes, Ganner said, "for what?"

          He never made things easier for her.  "For early," she said, "it felt good to talk to someone,"

          "And I didn't mind listening," he said, turning his head to look at her.

          "Even after what I said to you?"

           "Well, it's not like everything you said about me was wrong.  But people can change,"

          "Not in my experience they don't,"

          "They have to be willing to change first," he said softly, leaning towards her.

          Jaina found herself moving closer to him.  "How do you make them want to change?"

          "You don't," he murmured, when their faces were only centimeters apart, "they have to decide for themselves,"

          He brought his lips closer to Jaina's, and gently brushed them against hers – 

          "Jaina?"  The comm crackled.

          She quickly broke off the kiss with Ganner, and said into the comm, "mom?"

          She could feel her mother letting out a sigh of monumental relief.  "Thank the force you're all right.  Are Lusa and Ganner with you?"

          "Yeah," Jaina said looking at Ganner, "they're right here,"

          "Your father's just bringing the _Falcon_ into view now," after a few moments Leia added, "your ship looks a little worse for wear,"

          "It's a long story.  I'll explain everything when dad docks the _Falcon_ and we come onboard.

          As soon as the _Millennium Falcon_ was docked against the _First Mate's_ access hatch, three weary looking passengers disembarked from it.

          After exchanging a round of embarrassing hugs with her parents in front of her friends, Jaina explained how they had been intercepted by the Yuuzhan Vong on their way to the Dezzlec system.  They had jumped out of there after taking a beating by some coralskippers, but the hyperdrive had been badly damaged so they had only managed to jump a few systems away before it gave out.

          "We ran into the same problem," said Han, "when Luke called and told us you never showed up at Dezzlec, we decided to conduct a search of our own.

          "On the way, a Vong Interdictor ship knocked us out of hyperspace, but they already had their hands full with a bunch of mercenary ships, so I did a quick jump out of there.  I figured you must have done the same thing, and when your mother told me she could still feel you with those Jedi powers of hers, we started searching the nearby systems.  As soon as we picked up your distress signal we headed for Scelvic.  We got your warning too.  And I don't know about you but I don't want to hang around here any longer in case the Vong decide to show their ugly faces.  So, everybody take a seat, we're heading for Chandrilla."

          "Chandrilla?"  Jaina echoed in surprise.

          "That's where we're meeting Anakin," Leia explained to her daughter.

          The good news that Anakin was ready to talk to his family again – including their father – was enough to bring a smile to Jaina's face, until she saw her mother's expression.

          "What is it?"

          "When Luke called to tell us you didn't show up in the Dezzlec system, he told us that no one had heard from Tenal Ka or Jacen either.  Anakin volunteered to go after them while we went after you,"

          Jaina said, "has Anakin called to let you know if he's found them?"

          "No," Leia said, unable to keep the worry out of her voice, "he and Tahiri must still be looking for them,"

          Jaina tried to keep herself from thinking the worst, but she remembered Jacen had told her they were going to investigate rumours that the Vong were holding slaves on Rygelia.  And if there were slaves, then there would be Yuuzhan Vong.  She prayed Anakin and Tahiri would find her brother and Tenal Ka before anything happened to them.

There's still 2 chapters left to come!!!


	16. Rescue Attempt

As you're reading these last two chapters, just remember one thing:  THERE WILL BE A SEQUEL!!

CHAPTER SIXTEEN:  RESCUE ATTEMPT

          "Can we talk?"  Said Ganner, walking into the lounge area of the _Falcon_.

          "I think I'll go find out how much longer until we reach Chandrilla," said Lusa, getting up from where she sat at the deactivated holo game table across from Jaina.

          Ganner gave her a grateful nod when she passed him, and took Lusa's spot at the game table.

          "I'm sure Jacen and Tenal Ka are all right," he said to Jaina, "they know how to take care of themselves."

          "Jacen's okay," she said in a certain voice, "I would have felt it if anything had happened to him.  And that probably means Tenal Ka is fine too,"

          "Look, I'm sorry about earlier," he said slowly, "it was an accident.  I didn't mean to kiss you,"

          "You didn't?"  Jaina said, trying to hide her disappointment.

          "We've been through a lot these last few days," he explained, "and I think the whole near death experience made me do it,"

          "Right," Jaina agreed, nodding her head.

          "And when I told you I wasn't interested in you, I meant it,"

          "Of course," said Jaina, "I'm not ready for a relationship now anyways,"

          "So we're okay?"  Ganner said, acting uncharacteristically nervous.

          "Why wouldn't we be?"

          "I don't know," he said with a shrug of his shoulders, "so we can be friends?"

          Jaina smiled at him. "I'd like that,"

          Body stiff and sore from the cold, Jacen hunched down on the snowy ground in front of Tenal Ka.  She looked exhausted, and was shaking all over from the cold.  She still had his sweater on, but it did not seem to be doing her much good now.  It looked as if she had used up her remaining energy to put herself in the near-death like state to fool the Vong.

          Jacen was not fairing much better.  His exposed skin looked raw and had turned red.  He had long ago lost feeling in his arms and legs.  They were both suffering from a major case of frostbite, and one that would have lasting effects if they did not get out of the cold soon.

          He had not thought far enough ahead to think of where they were going to find shelter, and now he was thinking that maybe he should have.  But he had been too preoccupied with escaping before the Vong came to take Tenal Ka back to do so.

          He put her remaining frozen hand in his numb ones, in a futile effort to try and get it warm again.

          "We have to get moving again soon," he told her.  As soon as they had gone on the run, he had started reaching out with the force every so often, searching for patches or voids in it.  For the first little while, he had felt only the life of the forest around them, but recently patches of nothing had made their way into his perception.  And they were getting closer.

          They had kept on without a break until Tenal Ka had finally requested a short one.  That in itself was not a good sign.  She was the one who could go on for hours without a rest, while he was the one who would usually ask to stop or for her to at least slow down.

          He reached out with his mind, wanting to see how close the Yuuzhan Vong were to them.  His eyes widened in fear when all around him he felt voids of nothing closing in on them.

          "Come on," he said helping her up, "we have to go,"

          He was angry with himself for not checking more closely for the Vong, but he had not expected them to track him and Tenal Ka down so fast.

          Tenal Ka had a hard time keeping up with him, but she managed to do it.  She hated feeling this weak, but she hated slowing down Jacen even more.  They could have been miles ahead of the Yuuzhan Vong by now if not for her.  If they did have a confrontation with them, she was not going to let them get her without a fight.

          Jacen had no idea what they were running to, but all he knew was that as long as they kept on the move the Yuuzhan Vong couldn't get them.  Though with all the noise they were making – rocks and twigs crunching beneath their feet – it was virtually impossible for the Vong not to be able to track them.

          He thought they were actually gaining some distance from the Vong when a brown and gray blur grabbed him from behind and shoved him into a tree trunk.  Jacen readied his fists but quickly dropped them when he recognized the person in front of him.

          "Anakin," Jacen breathed in amazement.

          "Do you have any idea how hard a time Tahiri and I had tracking you?  Nobody around here gives you a straight answer,"

          "That' because they're working with the Yuuzhan Vong," Jacen told him, "but we don't have time to talk about that now.  The Vong are looking for me and Tenal Ka,"

          Anakin looked over at Tenal Ka, who was now wearing Tahiri's parka.  She looked like she was ready to collapse.  Jacen did not look much better.

          "Here," Anakin said, giving his frostbitten brother his own parka.

          Jacen took it gratefully, saying, "you do have a ship around here, don't you?"

          Anakin nodded.  "Follow me – " 

          "Anakin, look out!"  Tahiri shrieked.

          That split second warning probably saved his life.  He rolled out of the way of the attacking Yuuzhan Vong warrior and ignited his violet saber.  Getting up onto one knee, he blocked the amphistaff's thrust aimed at his neck.  He swiped at the back of warriors' knees, but the warrior blocked it – awkwardly.  It was off balance enough allowing Anakin to get back to his feet.

          Not daring to take his attention off the Yuuzhan Vong even for a second, Anakin shouted, "Tahiri, take them to the ship and I'll follow you,"

          "She has her hands full right now," his brother's voice answered instead.

          Anakin swore under his breath, as he jumped out of the way of a swipe at his midsection.  The situation was getting worse by the minute.  Jacen and Tenal Ka had no weapons, and now the Vong had found them.  He could already see at least a dozen warriors running towards them and would be at their position within moments.

          He had not planned on battling his way through hoards of Yuuzhan Vong to get out of there, but if that's what he had to do, then he would do it.

          He had fought enough Yuuzhan Vong to know that this one definitely belonged to the more experienced lot.  Anakin could tell by the way he was barely able to bring his energy blade up fast enough to block the lunges it made with its amphistaff.  He wondered if Tahiri was fairing any better against her own opponent.

          There was no way he could just cut and run.  The warrior would cut him down before he took two steps.  But he could not just stand there and let the approaching Vong box them in.  Coming to a decision, he said, "Jacen, take Tenal Ka and go find the ship.  You can't do anything here," he ducked to avoid a vicious strike at his head.  He could feel his brother's hesitation.  "We'll find you after, now get going!"

          Anakin's divided attention allowed the Vong to back him up against a tree, giving him little room to maneuver his blade.  So he turned it off.  The Vong went to strike out with its amphistaff at his chest, but Anakin had already dropped into a crouching position.  He ignited his blade, and it shimmered to life, burning its way through the Vong's kneecap.  Anakin finished the job, cutting its leg off at the knee.  The Vong was relentless though, and continued to attack Anakin without mercy.  But it was badly injured and at a complete disadvantage now, and with one swipe of his saber he cut off its head.  The decapitated head had not even had a chance to hit the ground, when in Anakin's mind he heard a tormented scream that made his heart stop in his chest.

          He didn't see it happen, but when he looked over at her he saw the amphistaff sticking out of her abdomen.  The Vong that had snuck up behind her yanked its weapon out of her, and she just stood there, blood pouring out of the wound, staring at Anakin.  The look of horror in her eyes burned its way into his memory.

          "TAHIRI!"  He screamed, charging towards her.  Two pairs of strong hands grabbed onto him.  Anakin struggled uselessly in his brother and Tenal Ka's grasp, not taking his eyes off Tahiri as she crumpled to the ground, surrounded by Yuuzhan Vong.

          "Let go of me!" He cried, and managed to break free from Tenal Ka's hold, but his brother still gripped his arms tightly.

          "Anakin, it's too late," said Jacen, "there's nothing you can do,"

          "No," Anakin said, shaking his head furiously.  Jacen didn't know what he was talking about.  He could still save her.  There was still time.

          "Anakin, listen to me," Jacen shouted, trying to get through to him, "she's gone, and so will we if we don't get out of here.  Don't let her death be for nothing,"

          Anakin finally broke free of his brother's hold, and Jacen was afraid he was going to have to slug him in the side of the head and drag him to the ship, but Anakin stayed where he was.

          "The ship is this way," he said in a flat, emotionless tone.  He took off deeper into the woods, with Jacen and Tenal Ka right behind him.

          The area was crawling with the Yuuzhan Vong warriors now, and most of them gave chase to the escapees, but a few remained behind to carry Tahiri's lifeless body back to the mining facility.

          Anakin ran hard, his body numb with cold not only on the outside but on the inside as well.  He didn't want to think or feel.  If he did that then he would have to acknowledge the growing pit of emptiness inside him, and that meant he would have to accept that Tahiri was dead.  He wasn't ready to do that.

          When he felt like he was losing control of his emotions, he made his body run harder.  He did not even bother to check if Jacen and Tenal Ka were keeping up with him.

          If his brother had just listened to him and left to go find the ship, he could have gone after Tahiri.  Even if he had been unable to save her, he would have made the Vong pay.  Every last one of them.

          He had not even been able to retrieve her body and take it back with him.  He had been forced to leave it behind with a group of merciless, cold-blooded killers.

          It was like Chewbacca all over again.  Tahiri had done nothing wrong except make the fatal mistake of putting her trust in him, like Chewie had.

          When the tiny supply ship came into view, Anakin look neither relieved nor happy.  He simply continued running.  When he reached it, he brought down the boarding ramp and headed for the cockpit.  He could hear Tenal Ka and Jacen's footsteps coming up behind him.

          Anakin drew a blank when he sat down at the controls.  He briefly squeezed his eyes shut.  He could not afford to breakdown now, people's lives depended on him, and he was not going to let anyone else die because of him.  Concentrating hard, his hands flew over the instruments and he quickly lifted the ship into the air.  He hoped his brother and Tenal Ka were strapped in because he doubted this was going to be a smooth ride.

          The moment he was free in the open air, the sensors started screaming at him.  Five A-wing fighters were giving chase after them.

          "Great, just what I need," he muttered.  For once, why couldn't a rescue operation go as planned?

          He put the ship into a few barrel rolls and other evasive maneuvers to prevent the fighters from getting a lock on them.  The supply ship had no weapons, and the shields probably wouldn't take more then a few hits before they collapsed.  The only chance they had was to outrun the fighters.

          His brother appeared at the door to the cockpit, and fell into the seat beside Anakin.  Tahiri had sat there on the way to Rygelia, but he couldn't think about that now.

          "Do you need a hand?"  Jacen asked.

          "No," Anakin replied without looking at him.  "There's no weapons, so we're just gonna have to make a run for it,"

          "What's after us?"  Jacen inquired.

          "Five A-wings,"

          Jacen shut up after that, knowing his younger brother needed to focus on getting them out of there alive.  Anakin was already distracted enough as it was, and Jacen didn't want him to make any mistakes. 

          The A-wings were closing in on them now, but Anakin had gotten enough of a head start, that they were still unable to lock onto him.  He just needed a few more minutes and then they could escape Rygelia and jump to lightspeed.  

          Speed was not one of the small ship's greater attributes, and that was what allowed the first fighter to hit them.  The shot just grazed the hull, but Anakin knew there would be many more where that came from.

          He was flying without help from the force, something that he had never done, and was potentially dangerous because of the situation they were in.  He knew that the second he opened himself up to it he would be overloaded with emotions he was not yet ready to deal with. But he was going to have to do it if he wanted to prevent the fighters from hitting the ship again.

          Preparing himself for the worst, Anakin opened himself to the force.  He let out a loud gasp and his hands trembled on the controls, momentarily causing him to lose control of the ship.  Jacen shot him a worried look but said nothing.  That was good, because Anakin would not have been able to answer him anyways.

          Letting the force guide his movements, he managed to dodge another burst of laser fire and continued reaching for space.  

          Using the force may have helped to keep them alive, but it was a terrible experience for Anakin.  He was filled with a sense of emptiness that went even deeper then when Chewie had died.  He was finally able to understand what his father had gone through when he had made the decision to leave Sernpidal and Chewbacca.  If his father had been piloting, they would have all died.  His dad had not cared about the lives aboard his ship, not even his life had mattered.  He would have sacrificed everything just to save his best friend.  Anakin had wanted to do that too, and would have if his brother hadn't stopped him.

          They broke through Rygelia's atmosphere, the fighters hot on their tail.  Anakin keyed in a set of coordinates into the nav computer.  He would just have to hold off the A-wings for another minute and then they would be free.

          He continued evading the enemy fighters, taking them farther away from Rygelia, but his concentration was breaking and the laser fire was beginning to pound against the ship's hull.  He knew that he should be focused on getting them out of there, but at the moment he couldn't find the energy to care.  Tahiri was gone.  That was all he could think about.  He was never going to hear her laugh again or hear her voice rambling on about a million different things at once.  He was never going to see her beautiful face smiling at him, with those brilliant green eyes of hers.  It was all gone now.  His best friend was gone, and the further he took them away from Rygelia, the deeper the ache in his heart got.

          Finally, with the fighters bearing down and blasting away at them, the counter on the nav computer reached zero.  Before the shields could buckle anymore under the assault, they jumped to lightspeed.

          The minute they were safe in hyperspace, Anakin got up and left the cockpit without a word to his brother.  He marched right by Tenal Ka, looking for a place where he could be alone.  There were no cabins in the supply ship but there was a storage room in the back.  He walked in there, and locked the door behind him.  He refused to come out until Jacen came by to announce that they had landed on Chandrilla. 

Before you start sending me flames, just remember that there will be a sequel (HINT HINT).


	17. The Process of Healing

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: THE HEALING PROCESS 

          Safe on Chandrilla, Jacen made his way to the section of rooms in the medical ward that were designed for recovery patients.

          Both he and Tenal Ka had spent days in a bacta tank, recuperating from a severe case of frostbite.  For Jacen, the bacta had also helped to completely heal his shoulder and broken nose.  Only yesterday, had the doctors decided to release him, certain that he was in good health again and would not suffer a relapse.  Tenal Ka on the other hand, was being kept there, so the doctors could run some more tests on her.  They wanted to be sure that her disease had not been aggravated because of what had happened to her on Rygelia.

          He had given his mother a full report of what was going on there with the Syynnodes and the Yuuzhan Vong.  Leia had been outraged to know that Rygelia was working with the Vong to hide slaves and was also using them to work their own mines.  She had contacted the New Republic council and they said they were looking into the matter, but Jacen knew what that meant.  The situation on Rygelia would be pushed to the side until the idiotic bureaucrats decided it was an issue worth looking into.  Slaves were not at the top of the New Republic's list of current priorities.  Killing Yuuzhan Vong and stopping them from invading other worlds was.  But just because the New Republic Senate was not going to look into the matter did not mean the Jedi were going to stand aside and do nothing about the increasing slave problem.

          When he had run into the doctor who was looking after Tenal Ka, a human female named Isobel Maddix, she had informed Jacen that Tenal Ka was not receiving any visitors that day.  He had asked why but all he got for an answer was that she simply did not want to see anyone.  Jacen found that extremely strange, and when the doctor had firmly refused to allow him to see her, he had _suggested_ to her that she go look in on her other patients.

          When he reached her room, the door was open, but he knocked on it anyways before walking in.

          Tenal Ka's head snapped up when she saw.  She was sitting in a self-conforming chair by the window, a blanket wrapped tightly around her.  She did not look happy at all to see him.

          "Jacen, what are you doing here?  I told the doctor I did not want any visitors,"

          "She told me the same thing, but I told her she had other patients that needed her attention," he said with a guilty smirk on his face.

          "You should not have used your powers like that," she reprimanded him.

          "I had to see you," he said, crossing the room and taking a seat on the edge of the bed across from where she sat.

          She looked away from him.  "If I had wanted to see you, I would have told the doctor that,"

          "Tenal Ka, what's wrong with you?  Why are you acting like this?" 

          She glared at him.  "You really don't get it do you?"

          He didn't.

          "I was weak on Rygelia," she spat out the word 'weak'.

          "You were injured,"

          "So where you, but that did not slow you down.  We almost did not escape because of me,"

          "But we did escape,"

          Tenal Ka hugged the blanket tighter around herself.  "And it cost Tahiri her life.  If I had not slowed you down, we could have been far away from the Yuuzhan Vong when your brother and her reached us,"

          "Now you're starting to sound like Anakin," Jacen said to her.  "What happened wasn't your fault anymore then it was mine or my brother's,"

          She asked, "how is Anakin?"

          Jacen shook his head.  "He's not dealing with it too well.  I think he's gotten past the denial stage, but he doesn't want to talk to anyone about it.  I'd probably be the same way if I lost my best friend," he said, locking his gaze on her.

          The warrior girl held the gaze but said nothing.

          "You know what's wrong with you?"  Jacen said.  "You're sulking,"

          "I do _not_ sulk," she said evenly.

          "You can call it what you like," he began, "but the reason you're moping around here is because you can't stand the fact that for once _I _was stronger then you,"

          She looked at him as if he had lost his mind.  "That is ridiculous,"

          "Is it?"  Jacen said in a challenging tone.  "Most of the time I'm the one who gets into trouble and need your help.  But now the tables have turned and you hate it.  Admit it,"

          "I do not have a problem with you helping me," she said to him, "but I do have a problem with being unable to help myself,"

          "I'm sure if you had been given the chance, you would have made quite a few Yuuzhan Vong sorry they had even captured a warrior from Dathomir,"

          "You know what I mean, Jacen,"

          "I do," he said in an understanding voice, "no one likes feeling weak, but you are _not _weak," he informed her.  "What brought all this on, your disease?"

          She looked out the window down at the landscape below, and did not answer him.

          "You know you're going to have days where you don't feel well," he said slowly, "but you won't have to go through it alone,"

          "Maybe I want to go through it alone," she said, still not looking at him.

          Jacen's eyebrows shot up.  "If you're thinking what I think you're thinking, you better stop that thought right there.  You are not breaking up with me,"

          "It would make things easier,"

          Jacen could not believe what he was hearing.  "Easier for who?  You?"  He shot at her.  "Because then you don't have to worry about me seeing you when you feel too sick to get out of bed.  Or now," he said, pointing at the blanket she had wrapped around her, "when you're freezing cold even though this room is hotter then a summer's day on Yavin Four.  I'm sorry, but you're not getting rid of me that easily."

          "I did not think I would be able to," she said, letting out a small smile.

          "You shouldn't have even tried to,"

          Tenal Ka got up from the chair and stared out the window.  With her back to him, she said, "I did not want to burden you,"

          "You're not a burden," he said, coming up behind her and putting his arms around her.

          "I just want to be normal again," she said in a voice so low, Jacen could barely hear her.

          "We could talk to my Uncle," Jacen suggested, "I'm sure he knows some place where we could start searching for a cure,"

          "Jacen, we cannot waste time looking for a cure that is not out there when there is a war going on around us," she said firmly.

          "That's exactly why my Uncle would be more then happy to point us in the right direction.  We need fully trained _and _healthy Jedi if we're going to win this war,"

          "I would not feel comfortable asking Master Skywalker for a leave of absence for personal reasons,"

          "You wouldn't be," he said, "I'm sure there's plenty of scouting that Uncle Luke and the rest of the Republic needs doing to see what planets haven't fallen under Vong control and what's going on on the ones that are.  Whatever planet or moon we end up on, we could find out that kind of information, and report back to the New Republic what section of space still don't belong to the Yuuzhan Vong.  It could prove vital to the moving of refugees from worlds that have already been taken," he explained to her.

          He made it sound so reasonable and logical, as if it were such a simple idea that how could someone not have thought of it before?  But she knew the real reason behind his saying it.  "I cannot ask you to go with me,"

          "You don't have to," he said.

          She knew what that meant: he was coming with her and there was nothing she could do to stop him.  Together they gazed out the med rooms' window.  It was spring on Chandrilla and all the flowers and trees were just starting to bloom.  She had not seen anything this peaceful since the Vong had entered the galaxy.

          "I miss my ship," she admitted out loud.  She felt foolish for being attached to a piece of machinery that could easily be replaced, but the _Rock Dragon_ held a lot of fond memories for her of days with her friends when they were trainees at the Jedi Academy.

          "I bet Ta'a Chume will have when waiting for you when we go back to Yavin Four,"

          "It won't be the same,"

          "Nothing ever is," he said to her.

          Leaning back against him, she whispered, "I'm scared, Jacen,"

          That had caught him completely off guard.  He had never expected those words to come out of the mouth of the proud and brave Dathomirian warrior and Jedi Knight.  He knew how much it must have pained her to say them.  He pulled her closer to him, and although he didn't say it out loud, he was scared too.

          Han Solo stepped out from the summer home the Chandrilla government had gladly let his family stay in, and walked through the long wild grasses looking for his youngest son.

          As soon as the government on Chandrilla had heard that the distinguished Leia Organa Solo and her family were visiting, they had been more then happy to offer them a quiet place in the country to stay for the duration of their trip.  It was not the kind of circumstances that Han would consider a vacation.  Jacen had spent most of it in the nearby medical center, and Anakin…he had spent the majority of his time alone, wandering in the open country land.

          They had spoken a few words to each other, but nothing to spark any real conversation.  Not that Han really blamed him.  After the way he had treated him, he figured he was lucky to still have a second son.

          Somehow, Han did not think the word 'sorry' would any longer be able to fix anything between them.  He was not even sure if anything of their relationship could be salvaged.  But he had to try, even if in the end Anakin decided he never wanted to speak to him again.

          It did not take too long for Han to find him.  His son was sitting by a small pond throwing stones into it.  He knew Anakin had to have felt him approaching by now, unless he was purposely cutting himself from the force.  That would not surprise Han, considering what the kid must be feeling like inside.

          Han cleared his throat.  "Mind if I join you?"         

          Anakin shrugged.  "I guess if anyone knows what I'm going through, it's you," he said before throwing another stone into the pond.

          Han took a seat on the ground beside him.  "Do you want to talk about it?"

          "What's there to talk about?  She's dead," he said in a sullen voice.

          Han's heart went out to him, but he didn't know what to say to that.  This kind of stuff was Leia's department.  Dealing with emotions and making people feel better was what she did on a regular basis.  But he was the one who knew exactly what his son was feeling because he had felt that way for nearly a year now.  The kid obviously needed to talk to someone before it got too late and he ended up dealing with Tahiri's death like he had dealt with Chewie's, and Han did not want to see that happen.

          "It hurts, doesn't it?"

          Anakin nodded, swallowing hard against the lump forming in his throat.  "I miss her," 

          "It's not easy losing your best friend,"

          "Tahiri was more then just my best friend," he said, fighting to keep at bay the tears that were threatening to fall.  "I…I love her,"

          Han was completely taken aback by his son's words.  He had his work cut out for him all right.  Maybe he didn't know exactly what Anakin was going through.

          "I didn't know you felt that way about her,"

          "Neither did I," said Anakin, "until it was too late,"

          "I think she knew how you felt," his father said, "you guys had that whole force strong connection thing going on,"

          "How can you love someone who hurts you all the time?"  Anakin said, quickly wiping away the tears that had started falling down his face. He kept thinking about how he had treated Tahiri in the days before she had been killed.  "She wouldn't have even been on Rygelia if it wasn't for me,"

          "Anakin, you have to stop blaming yourself for everything.  You didn't know what was going to happen," Han said to him.  "Her death wasn't your fault…and neither was Chewie's,"

          Anakin stared hard at his father.  "That's why you keep telling me Chewie would still be alive if I hadn't left him behind,"

          "I shouldn't have said that, but I was angry.  Angry at myself," he told his son, "but that's no excuse for the way I've treated you since he died.  I blamed myself for what happened to Chewie.  He was _my_ best friend, and I should have been able to save him, but I failed.  I let him die, and I thought that if I put the blame on somebody else I would feel less guilty," he admitted, "but it didn't work, and I ended up hating myself even more because of what my selfish actions were doing to you and our family."  Now Han was having trouble holding back his own tears.  "Anakin, you're my son and I love you.  And I know this may not mean anything to you anymore because I've said it so many times, but I'm sorry.  I'm sorry for what a horrible father I've been, and I'm sorry for everything I put you through.  But I hope that one day you'll be able to forgive me for all that because I don't want to lose you,"

          By this point, tears had started falling down Anakin's face again.  He had waited so long to hear his dad say those words to him, to have him say he had never really blamed him, and yet it was still hard for him to believe it.  Then his dad surprised him again by pulling him into a fierce embrace.  Anakin hugged him back with equal force.  After months of disappointed glares shot his way and countless arguments, he finally had his dad back.

          When they let go of each other, Anakin saw his dad was brushing away the drops of moisture that had fallen down his cheeks.

          "Don't tell your mom I let loose a few tears," Han said, "she'll think I'm getting soft in my old age,"

          _You are_, Anakin thought, but he did not think his father would appreciate him saying so, so he kept it to himself.

          They both sat in silence – and for the first time in months it was not a tense silence – until Anakin said, "does it go away?"

          "Does what go away?"

          "The feeling of emptiness inside you,"

          Should he lie to him?  No, Anakin would just find it out on his own anyways.  Besides, he deserved an honest answer, instead of the usual comforting lies that adults would always tell kids, and Anakin was most certainly not a child anymore.

          "No it doesn't," Han answered truthfully, putting his arm around his son's shoulders, "it does get better though, but that doesn't mean you miss or love the person any less.  Tahiri and Chewbacca will always be with you, Anakin.  No one can ever take that away from you,"

          Anakin could not imagine the feeling of loneliness or the stitch in his heart subsiding in even the least bit.  But his dad was talking from his own personal experience so then he must know something about what he was talking about.

          He would always miss Tahiri, that was a given.  But she would also always be a part of him and that would never change, no matter how much time passed.

The End 

I've already started work on a sequel, and will hopefully be able to post the first couple of chapters within the next few weeks.


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